Table 2.

Leading Clinical Identifiers of Recognized Pandemic Diseases.

Disease Salient Clinical Features
Smallpox Typical widespread vesiculo-pustular rash, occasionally corneal opacification
Measles Morbilliform rash, Koplik’s spots, conjunctivitis, rhinorrhea
Plague Buboes (huge lymphadenopathy), pneumonia
Cholera Sudden-onset profuse watery diarrhea, early hypovolemic shock
Yellow fever Jaundice
Influenza H1N1 Flu-like illness*, severe disease and death in young adults
Influenza H3N2 Flu-like illness*
Influenza H2N2 Flu-like illness*
AIDS Opportunistic infections, Kaposi’s sarcoma of skin and viscera, profound emaciation
SARS Severe pneumonia
Ebola Bleeding from multiple sites
MERS Severe pneumonia
COVID-19 Severe pneumonia, silent anoxia, anosmia, ageusia, toe lesions mimicking chilblains, pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome
*Fever, myalgia, respiratory symptoms, extreme weakness.

AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome; COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019; Flu, influenza; H1N1, hemagglutinin-1 neuraminidase-1; H2N2, hemagglutinin-2 neuraminidase-2; H3N2, hemagglutinin-3 neuraminidase-2; MERS, Middle East respiratory syndrome; SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome.

RMMJ Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal Rambam Health Care Campus 2020 July; 11(3): e0027. ISSN: 2076-9172
Published online 2020 July 31. doi: 10.5041/RMMJ.10418