What is a virus? Did malaria kill half of all people ever alive? How many millions did the Black Death kill? What is a pandemic?

1. Infectious Diseases
and Viruses
Ebola

2. What are viruses?
Tiny organisms, 100 times smaller than a single
bacteria cell.
They are an infective agent that typically consist of
a nucleic acid molecule in a protein coat that is able
to multiply only within the living cells of a host.
Thus, by itself, the virus is not alive. It needs a host.
Deadly Viruses

3. When a virus infects a host, it invades the cells and
take them over in order to carry out its own life
process of multiplication and growth.
An infected cell produces viral particles instead of
doing its normal functions.
Deadly Viruses

4. Deadly Viruses

5. Have half of all human deaths in history been
caused by malaria?
No one quite knows.
Roughly 110 billion humans have lived in the past
52,000 years.
Death rates from malaria were much higher in the
past, but it still kills close to one million a year.
Malaria

6. Plague is caused by bacteria.
Plague

7. The Black Death killed between 75 to 200 million
people between the years 1346-1353.
Plague

8. A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease
that spreads across a large region; usually multiple
continents.
Pandemic

9. Experts believe the odds of a worse pandemic than
COVID-19 within the next fifty years are very high.
Estimates are that:
1 billion people would get sick.
165 million will die
There will be a global recession and depression
Pandemic

10. Why are the odds of a pandemic high?
1. Global population has increased dramatically.
2. People are moving to crowded, central locations:
cities.
3. World-wide travel is much faster and more
common.
Pandemic

11. Infectious Diseases
I’ve used infectious diseases as central to
the plot in several of my books.
I first became interested in this after reading
The Hot Zone way back in 1995. The book
is still well worth reading.

12. Infectious DiseasesThis topic has been central to the books
below:

13. More Free Information
I constantly update free, downloadable
slideshows like this on my web site for
preparation and survival and other
topics.
www.bobmayer.com/workshops
Also, I conduct Area Study workshops
for those interested in properly
preparing for their specific
circumstances.

14. The guide on the left is the complete preparation and
survival guide. The one on the right is a pocket-size
manual with just the survival portion. Useful in your Grab-
n-Go bag, car and kitchen drawer.
SURVIVAL GUIDES

16. New York Times bestselling author, is a graduate of West
Point and former Green Beret. He’s had over 80 books
published, including the #1 bestselling series Green Berets,
Time Patrol, Area 51, and Atlantis. He’s sold over 5 million
books. He was born in the Bronx and has traveled the world.
He’s lived on an island off the east coast, an island off the
west coast, in the Rocky Mountains, the Smoky Mountains
and other places, including time in East Asia studying martial
arts.
He was an instructor and course developer/writer for years
at the JFK Special Warfare Center and School which trains
Green Berets and also runs the SERE school:
Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape.
www.bobmayer.com