Flu Pandemics That Have Swept Our World
The topic of Swine flu has recently dominated world news. This new strain of the flu virus has spread to all parts of the world in “unprecedented speed,” the World Health Organisation has said. Schools near to where I live and indeed around the rest of the country have been closed down for a week in some cases, due to pupils and teachers being infected with the virus.
However, isolating patients or people who visited Mexico at the time of the outbreak will not have the desired effect on the spread of the infection. After all, researchers at the University of Hong Kong’s Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases have said that flu viruses identified in the three major pandemics of this kind have been circulating in humans and pigs for about fifteen years before the effects were even felt. At this stage of the full-blown pandemic, the poignant question is, is it time to panic. Well, this has all happened before and the resilience of the human race means that we’ve been able to cope with it in the past with a lot less information and research results at our disposal. Nowadays with the progressions of treatments and medicine, I dare say we can do it again.
The Spanish Flu of 1918-1919
This flu, derived from avian source, is estimated to have killed between 50 million to 100 million worldwide, with about 40 percent of the world’s population at the time becoming ill. Of those who died, many of them felt ill in the morning and were dead by nightfall.
The aftermath of this flu was devastating, killing more people than those who died in World War 1. It is believed that the movement of soldiers – many of whom fell to the flu and not to their enemies’ bullets – helped to spread the virus further afield. The most unusual and devastating quality about this strain is that it killed mostly young people (between 20 -40 years old) impacting greatly on future generations because these were the people of working (tax-paying), and child-bearing age.
The Asian Flu of 1957
This strain was first identified in Southern China in 1956 and lasted until 1958. It is said to have started when a virus from wild ducks (avian source) was somehow combined with a human strain of the flu. About 2 million people died of the Asian flu worldwide.
When this avian strain was first identified it caused panic among health officials because it was clear from the cross species element of the virus, that no one had any immunity to it whatsoever. It was said at the time that this concoction was seen as potentially devastating because scientists had no initial indication of how to treat this new, vibrant virus that was taking over the world. After the flu had eaten its way around the globe it lay dormant for ten years, only to resurface in 1968, mutating yet again.
Hong Kong Flu of 1968
This outbreak was not considered as major as the former two, although it did kill about 1 million people worldwide. It emerged as a mutated strain of the avian flu ten years prior, but at least there were living people who’d already built up a resistance to it.
It started in Hong Kong and infected 15% of the population, but there were several million people there already partially immune. This meant that the death rate was not as serious there as it was elsewhere in the world. After a while the virus was also detected in pigs, now infected with the avian crossed with the human strain. This pandemic quickly spread to other parts of Asia, then to Australia, America and the rest of the world.
Many of us can remember the news in 1997 and 1999, of this virus attempting to raise its ugly head again. Six people in Hong Kong died before it was discovered that the virus was working its way directly from chickens to people, but before it could spread again all chickens were destroyed. Since the virus did not easily move from one person to another, it was stumped with nowhere to go.
The Swine Flu of 2009
When this present pandemic emerged it was clear that no one would have any immunity to this new strain of the virus. At first only the aged and the very young (or people with underlying health issues) died from it, but recently it has proved fatal in a few cases of otherwise young, healthy people. More than 100 countries around the world have now reported cases of swine flu.
The onset of this flu comes with a fever, cough and shortness of breath. You may also have a headache, sore throat, muscle aches, chills, and a runny nose.
How you can stop the spread
Just remember that when you cough or sneeze into your hands you hold things like door handles, computer keyboards, public telephones, toilet flush handles etc. so always keep tissues with you to sneeze into. Use them once and dispose.
Wash your hands with soap and warm water or buy a sanitiser gel and keep in your bag.
If you feel that you may have been exposed to the flu, stay away from crowds and groups of children like schools, fairs, adventure parks and call your doctor’s office instead of going in to see her/him.
It’s all up to us to curb this pandemic before it wreaks havoc like the other viruses before it have done. Be safe, act wisely and stay healthy.
Filed under: Fitness
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