Talk:List of epidemics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] AIDS

Should not AIDS on the African continent be included here as an epidemic? I'm not adding it myself as I'm not sure the best way of portraying it or dating it.

Courtland 03:16, 2005 Apr 5 (UTC)

Has since been added to the sublist of pandemics. -- Beland 06:45, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Removed, no evidence that it meets the classification of a pandemic offered in support at this time. - MSTCrow 19:14, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Re-added--not trying to start an edit war, but to leave it out baffles me. The wikipedia entry on AIDS identifies it as a pandemic, citing UNAIDS literature. If 38.6 million people around the world infected with an incurable disease does not qualify as a pandemic, what does?

[edit] List Organization

This partial list has only two sections / sorted by different criteria. I have some good reference material to add. I've been thinking of a more expansive list but what would be the best way to divide it up?

1) by date? good for historians. (i.e. divided into ancient history, medieval history, early modern history and modern day??)

2) by causal agent? good for medical readers. (i.e. smallpox, typhus, bubonic plague, unidentified agent etc??)

3) by geographic area -- (probably by continent??) good for epidemiologists and people interested in histories of individual countries. (but would cause duplication for most of the pandemics, and some epidemics in border regions.)

A few of us are knocking these things around on the discussion page of a (possibly temporary) page just called Plague. Your comments would be appreciated. WBardwin 05:11, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Efforts in this area are now found on List of historical plagues. A merge may be in our future. Please take a look. Comments? WBardwin 03:05, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Statistics request

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2007)

This list would be even better if it had statistics on number of people affected or killed. I have made other such lists into sortable tables, which allows readers to rank the list by different columns, dynamically. List of natural disasters by death toll has a start. -- Beland 06:45, 30 December 2006 (UTC)