The history of humanity is inseparable from the history of epidemics

Specialists distinguish outbursts of serious infectious diseases into pandemics and epidemics. Millions of people may die all over the world as a result of a pandemic, whereas an epidemic is of a smaller scale.

Several large-scale pandemics have been registered in the history of the human civilization. The majority of them were of zoonotic character, when people caught diseases from animals. Smallpox, diphtheria, flu and TB are the diseases that carry a global danger.