10 of the deadliest epidemics in history

Diseases, especially infectious ones, have been one of the leading causes of death throughout history; more people have died from illness than from warfare. For example, during the Civil War, disease accounted for two-thirds of the total casualties.
In earlier times, it was harder to avoid the spread of disease due to poor sanitation, primitive medicine, and lack of basic hygiene in close living quarters, all of which led to mass devastation. But if there’s one thing we can take away from learning about the deadliest epidemics in history, it’s that outbreaks today — like Ebola, Zika, or different types of influenzas — are much smaller and more contained than those that occurred in ancient and medieval times, due to improved emergency response and medical attention, even in developing countries.

10 of the deadliest epidemics in history, from Bubonic Plague To HIV/AIDS