Abstract

Pandemic is the term coined for the widespread of a disease or infection on a very large scale and across borders. COVID-19, an outcome of the spread of coronavirus, reportedly started from China and spread to almost all the countries of the world. Though it is not for the first time that there was an outbreak of a disease at such a high magnitude but the duration for which it has continued to grapple the world with its virulence and contagious nature, it has become important to take a peek into the history of other pandemics of the world too. Before COVID -19, about 20 major outbreaks of infectious diseases took place and claimed millions of lives in a sweep. The awareness of government bodies, WHO, and non-government organizations grew better with every pandemic. Understanding the role of basic hygiene, self-immunity, social distancing, living in coherence with other living and non-living components of the planet are some positive outcomes of these pandemics. These pandemics also necessitated the need for discovering new drugs and vaccines.

This chapter describes the major pandemics in the history of mankind, the origin and types of coronaviruses, the association of different types of coronaviruses with the ranges and severity of infections, and the origin of COVID-19.