Epidemics

<div> <p>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 today-smallpox bubonic plague Spanish influenza polio and HIV/AIDS-the 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 demographic-the Spanish flu for instance claimed the lives of six percent of the country's population in six weeks-to 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 country's history-such as during the South African War and World War I-the 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.</p> </div>