The 1775 Smallpox Epidemic, United States, 145.000 Casualties
The eradication of the extremely deadly smallpox is considered one of the 20th century biggest medical achievements. The disease, which is caused by the variola virus and is spread through direct contact with someone who’s infected, is something that only has a consequential effect on humans and is believed to have occurred several times in human history.
In the 1700s, smallpox was the largest and deadliest infectious disease in the world, leading to the death of over 60 million people of that century alone. The largest epidemic of the disease occurred between 1775-82, the same time as the American Revolutionary War. The outbreak spread across the North American continent and was especially hard on the country’s indigenous people. By 1779, Smallpox had lead to the death of nearly 11.000 Native Americans in the Western area of present-day Washington, and reduced the population from 37.000 to 26.000 in seven years alone.
Smallpox was not limited in a certain area, and in seven years the disease managed to spread between Native tribes across the North American continent. The epidemic spread into the South, Mexico, and west, and by the time the disease rates began to go down, the smallpox epidemic had reached as far west as the Pacific Coast and into Alaska, infecting and killing an estimated 145,000 people.