In the 14th century the world was devastated by plague, known as 'The Black Death', in the 20th century a deadly form of influenza struck infecting around a quarter of the world's population. Since then HIV, Ebola and more have stricken nations. With each epidemic and pandemic comes a huge human cost but each also carry an economic cost. In this programme John Murphy visits pandemics past to see what history can teach us about economic cost and recovery.

Presenter: John Murphy Producer: Lizzy McNeill

Picture: An American street cleaner during the influenza epidemic in 1918 Credit: Getty