Third plague pandemic

Third plague pandemic
Plague patient being injected by a doctor in 1897, British Raj India.
Disease	Bubonic plague
Location	India, China, worldwide
Dates	1855–1960 (105 years)
Deaths	10 million in India, 2 million in China, up to 3 million elsewhere

The third plague pandemic was a major bubonic plague pandemic that began in Yunnan, China, in 1855.^[1] This episode of bubonic plague spread to all inhabited continents, and ultimately led to more than 12 million deaths in India and China^[2] (and perhaps over 15 million worldwide^[3]), and at least 10 million Indians were killed in British Raj India alone, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.^[4][3][5] According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic was considered active until 1960, when worldwide casualties dropped to 200 per year. Plague deaths have continued at a lower level for every year since.^[6]

The name refers to the third of at least three known major plague pandemics.^[7] The first began with the Plague of Justinian, which ravaged the Byzantine Empire and surrounding areas in 541 and 542; the pandemic persisted in successive waves until the middle of the 8th century. The second began with the Black Death, which killed at least one third of Europe's population in a series of expanding waves of infection from 1346 to 1353; this pandemic recurred regularly until the 19th century.^[8]

Casualty patterns indicate that waves of this late-19th-century/early-20th-century pandemic may have come from two different sources. The first was primarily bubonic and was carried around the world through ocean-going trade, through transporting infected persons, rats, and cargoes harboring fleas. The second, more virulent strain, was primarily pneumonic in character with a strong person-to-person contagion. This strain was largely confined to Asia.^{[citation needed]}