ArticleThe Economic history review2020
An introduction to the history of infectious diseases, epidemics and the early phases of the long-run decline in mortality.
Article in The Economic history review, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ancient DNA reveals that natural selection has upregulated the immune system over the last 10,000 years.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The history of smallpox vaccination in Italy: the vaccination campaign in the Ligurian Republic between the end of the Ancien Régime and the advent of the Napoleonic period (1797-1805).Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene · 2026Article
- The 7 C Vaccination Readiness Scale: An Empirical Country Comparison Between Germany and Greece.Journal of epidemiology and global health · 2025Article
- Resource reallocation under persistent immune activation drives trade-offs between life history and immunity in pirk-deficient Musca domestica.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Antibiotic prescription sources and use among under-5 children with fever/cough in sub-Saharan Africa.International health · 2025Article
- Exploring dentist's engagement with antibiotic stewardship programs: a multicenter qualitative study in Pakistan.GMS hygiene and infection control · 2025Article
- Vaccine trends: a narrative review.Journal of Yeungnam medical science · 2025Article
- Antimicrobial Resistance in Equines: A Growing Threat to Horse Health and Beyond-A Comprehensive Review.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Mitochondria makeover: unlocking the path to healthy longevity.Expert opinion on therapeutic targets · 2024Article
- Bacterial and Fungal Pathogens: New Weapons to Fight Them.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Personalized nutrition: the end of the one-diet-fits-all era.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Article
- An extended period of elevated influenza mortality risk follows the main waves of influenza pandemics.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2023Article
- The Use of Antibiotics and Antimicrobial Resistance in Veterinary Medicine, a Complex Phenomenon: A Narrative Review.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Unraveling female reproductive senescence to enhance healthy longevity.Cell research · 2023Review
- Is Economic Growth Good for Population Health? A Critical Review.Canadian studies in population · 2023Review
- SARS-CoV-2 infection and immune responses.AIMS microbiology · 2023Review
- Using next generation antimicrobials to target the mechanisms of infection.npj antimicrobials and resistance · 2023Review
- PHEVIR: an artificial intelligence algorithm that predicts the molecular role of pathogens in complex human diseases.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The Value of Vaccines: A Tale of Two Parts.Vaccines · 2022Article
- Antibiotic Use in European Pig Production: Less Is More.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
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Abstract
This article, written during the COVID-19 epidemic, provides a general introduction to the long-term history of infectious diseases, epidemics and the early phases of the spectacular long-term improvements in life expectancy since 1750, primarily with reference to English history. The story is a fundamentally optimistic one. In 2019 global life expectancy was approaching 73 years. In 1800 it was probably about 30. To understand the origins of this transition, we have to look at the historical sequence by which so many causes of premature death have been vanquished over time. In England that story begins much earlier than often supposed, in the years around 1600. The first two 'victories' were over famine and plague. However, economic changes with negative influences on mortality meant that, despite this, life expectancies were either falling or stable between the late sixteenth and mid eighteenth centuries. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth century saw major declines in deaths from smallpox, malaria and typhus and the beginnings of the long-run increases in life expectancy. The period also saw urban areas become capable of demographic growth without a constant stream of migrants from the countryside: a necessary precondition for the global urbanization of the last two centuries and for modern economic growth. Since 1840 the highest national life expectancy globally has increased by three years in every decade.
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