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If you’re worried about the possibility of a coming bird flu epidemic, you can take comfort in the fact that humanity has survived a similar influenza epidemic in the past. Starting its rounds at the end of World War I, the 1918 flu killed an estimated 50 million people. It killed more people in a year than the Bubonic Plague, and in its more than a year of existence killed more people than AIDS did in 25 years.
Popularly known as the Spanish Flu, this strain of influenza was far worst than your common cold. Normally, influenza only kills those who are more vulnerable to disease, such as newborns, the old or sick. However, the Spanish Flu was prone to killing the young and healthy. Often it would disable its victims in hours; within a day, they would be dead, typically from extreme cases of pneumonia. Unfortunately, this quick death was not enough to keep the disease from spreading all over the world.
The Spanish flu was quite nasty – fast-spreading and deadly. The Spanish Flu managed to spread across the globe, devastating the world. Then suddenly, after two years ravaging the Earth, it disappeared as quickly as it had arose.
Despite its nickname, the Spanish Flu did not originate in Spain. Its true origins are unknown, but there are a few theories that virologists have proposed. Some believe it started in US forts and then spread to Europe as America joined the war; others think that it populated the trenches of the English and the French and eventually broke out in 1918. Regardless of where it started, eventually a fifth of the world population suffered the disease, with a global mortality rate estimated at 2.5% of the population. Within the US alone, 28% of the population is said to have suffered the disease.
Modernity is partly to blame for the quick spread of the disease. It passed throughout the world on trade routes and shipping lines. It hit Northern America, Europe, Asia, African and the South Pacific. The war did not help at all – the movement of supplies and troops aided the spread of the Spanish Flu, as well as the trench warfare. Imagine the speed at which a virus can spread in a crowded ditch. The fast emergence of the virus in the trenches caused some soldiers to believe that the Spanish Flu was a new form of biological warfare.
The Spanish Flu changed people’s ways of life. Gauze masks were publicly distributed. Flu ordnances were passed to help quarantine the disease. Some towns required special paperwork to pass through them. Funerals were limited to 15 minutes in length. Hospitals became filled so quickly that there were not enough doctors, so medical students were forced out of school and into hospitals as nurses or interns. Of course, there was a grave shortage of coffins, morticians, and gravediggers.
Luckily, the Spanish Flu simply vanished by 1920. It is believed the flu simply ran out of fuel to spread. The scoreboard: Humanity, 1; Flu, 50,000,000.
In recent times, scientists have managed to find reproduce strains of the Spanish Flu from the dead found in permafrost from 1918 and are testing its affects on mice. This is a dangerous undertaking – some scientists did not want anyone to do it, sure that the Spanish Flu would have another (and this time more deadly) outbreak on the world. Thankfully this has not happened, and the results have useful for our current situation, since the original strain is now believed to have come from birds. As such, studies are now being conducted to see how the 1918 flu mutated from a bird flu to one that could pass between humans. Hopefully, some studies will find ways to create an effective vaccine before any future bird influenza destroys the world population.
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“Of course, there was a grave shortage of coffins, morticians, and gravediggers.”
;-)
Funny how a possible flu pandemic is growing during another war, this time in Iraq.
The End said: “Funny how a possible flu pandemic is growing during another war, this time in Iraq.”
Although absolutely nothing to do with it at all. And the current avian flu strain has been a worry since 1997 or thereabouts.
The End said: “Funny how a possible flu pandemic is growing during another war, this time in Iraq.”
There are always wars going on somewhere on the globe. There’s not always world wars.
I just read this article in one of the Watchtower/Awake journals. I tossed it after reading (I ummmm, read them in the bathroom) but it is interesting that it pretty much contained the same information. I could check the credits as to where the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society got their information from as obviously there are many sources that contain the same or parts of the facts. I had been surprised that it started But like I said, I tossed it. (Don’t want to start a household epidemic.)
Two points that the journal stated is: #1 it started in the U.S.; for some reason Kansas is coming to mind but I cannot remember. #2 I thought it stated ONE person had been found in a perma-frost condition and that prior to that they only had one “germ molecule”. Most of the information I am reading looks much like I already read.
I actually read a lot but I am not one of those people who retain everything they read. I know people like that. I am quite jealous of them.
Just another name wrote: I actually read a lot but I am not one of those people who retain everything they read. I know people like that. I am quite jealous of them.”
Don’t be. We also get a good bout of the flu once in a while.
I first read about this in a poetry collection by Ellen Bryant Voigt, Kyrie. A series of broken sonnets about the pandemic years. I recommend it highly. It’s one of those rare poetry books you can read from cover to cover. You not only learn about history, in a way, you experience it.
It came, it saw, it conquered.
Even the normal flu is extremely dangerous in itself – it spreads through air.
Any mixing of the normal flu strain with another virus could potentially cause huge, Deadly epidemics.
You have flu epidemics almost every year, in almost any country.
Most strains have become pretty tame in our times – you stay in bed for a few days, and then you’re through and healthy.
The danger of the bird flu alone is insignificant – it only passes from bird to man through mucus for example if you pick your nose after slicing some raw chicken without washing your hands first.
Doesn’t pass any other way – eaten, the virus is destroyed by our digestive system.
But the pain is that this bird flu could mix with a strain of normal flu. And then here comes the Spanish Influenza again, considering today’s transport.
Also, as reported, the bird flu has a higher mortality rate than even Ebola – 75% compared to Ebola’s 40 or 50%.
alipardiwala said: “It came, it saw, it conquered.”
*A-A-A-CHOOO!! “Hey, cover your mouth!!!!” “Pluck you.”
Sorry ibout the punctuation, I had to hunt and peck….
Germs of a feather will flock togather?….
Ok Ok ,I will stop now, (snif)
I really get quite irritated when I read or hear of another “Pandemic”. I feel that it has become a buzzword attached to ANY disease that has more than a few cases reported. There are so many other problems we could be dealing with that may allow these diseases a foothold. Malnutrition in third world countries and, in some cases, even at home, is one item that comes to mind. Perhaps if the media were not looking for the latest sensation “Pandemics” would disappear.
As a ‘for instance’, head injury just here in Alberta, Canada has 10,000 reported instances a year of people that are directly impacted. Most commonly the young and the elderly. These people, if it hasn’t killed them outright, spend the rest of their lives trying to live with a debilitating injury that affects everything in their life.
Okay, rant done. Sorry.
Sounds about right.
All you really need to say is that it was “Raising Hell”.
Thats pretty much what it did. Some suggest that it came from space. Specificly from comets. Comets contain Carbon which can contain some sort of life. Drop elements or part of it in the atmosphere and birds pick it up first. A recipe for disaster.
That would help explain why Birds always get that crap first. But it would take a heck of a long time for the virus to drop through our atmosphere. Let’s hope that next pandemic isn’t too far off. Our world is over-populated, it’s needs to be cleansed of some humans, Many but not all.
Shouldn’t “worst than your common cold” be “worse than your common cold” ?
And “results have useful for our current situation” be “results have been useful for our current situation”…
Looks like this post was made in a hurry..DI nevertheless!
The last paragraph is in such bad shape it doesn’t make any sense at all. When you guys are finished with your book, you might want to fix this one.
Bah you stole my thunder
they are dirty chiken wing dings
im really funny your not
did you no spanish flu is gay
spanish flu tried to hook up with me
Interesting article, spoiled by reference to the ‘English trenches’ when of course it should be ‘British trenches’.
The possibility of the flu causing the demise of homo sapiens brings to mind a line from one of Stephen King’s short stories. A particularly bad flu strain had killed billions, and civilization was over. A couple of teens had painted the following on a wall: It was just the flu.
Yep. That’s generally how we view the flu. It’s just the flu. Nothing bad.