CentralNotice From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Wikimedia list article 17th-century German "plague panel" depicting the triumph of death. Panels of this kind were placed on the walls of houses to warn against the plague. A plague epidemic raged in Augsburg , Bavaria between 1632 and 1635. This is a list of the largest known epidemics and pandemics caused by an infectious disease . Widespread non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer are not included. An epidemic is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period of time; in meningococcal infections , an attack rate in excess of 15 cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks is considered an epidemic. [1] Due to the long time spans, the first plague pandemic (6th century–8th century) and the seco...