Several historical examples illustrate the devastating impact of epidemics:
The Black Death (1347-1351), caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe. The Spanish Flu (1918-1919), an H1N1 influenza virus, infected one-third of the world's population and caused approximately 50 million deaths. The Ebola outbreak (2014-2016) in West Africa, caused by the Ebola virus, resulted in over 11,000 deaths.
