Epidemics

This is the first history of epidemics in South Africa, lethal episodes that significantly shaped this society over three centuries. Focusing on five devastating diseases between 1713 and todaysmallpox, bubonic plague, Spanish influenza, polio, and HIV/AIDSthe book probes their origins, their catastrophic courses, and their consequences in both the short and long terms. The impacts of these epidemics ranged from the demographicthe Spanish flu, for instance, claimed the lives of six percent of the countrys population in six weeksto the political, the social, the economic, the spiritual, the psychological, and the cultural. Moreover, as each of these epidemics occurred at crucial moments in the countrys historysuch as during the South African War and World War Ithe book also examines how these processes affected and were affected by the five epidemics. To those who read this book, history will not look the same again.