In Time of Plague: The History and Social Consequences of Lethal Epidemic DiseasePlague. The word itself is like a blow, connoting misery, miasma and death. Plague takes many forms: influenza, typhus, cholera, the Black Death, and, recently, AIDS. AIDS has reminded us that epidemic infectious disease is not simply a historical phenomenon or one limited like famine to remote continents and is a vivid and painful illustration of how epidemics take place at a number of levels biological event, social perception, collective response,