THE SPANISH FLU
G'day folks,
This will sound familiar.
In 1918, the world was ravaged by twin catastrophes. World War I was
entering its climactic phase, after four years of calamity, as Allied
armies advanced across Europe to fight the Central Powers. At the same
time, a much smaller enemy was beginning to ravage cities and towns
across the globe.
Nobody is quite sure where the deadly strain of influenza virus that
spread like wildfire in 1918 came from. What is known is that the
pandemic killed between 17 and 50 million people, and possibly as many
as 100 million, making it one of the worst catastrophes in human
history.
There were two main waves of the pandemic. The one in early 1918 was
similar to seasonal influenza, in that the elderly and those with
underlying health conditions were most at risk. But by August, the H1N1
virus had mutated to a far deadlier form.
There are competing theories as to why the second wave of the disease
was so deadly for young people. One explanation is that it caused what
is known as a 'cytokine storm', where the immune system goes into
overdrive to fight the virus and ends up causing pneumonia and raising
the risk of mortality. In this case, a stronger immune system would have
been a liability.
The other theory is that poor hygiene standards in 1918, the lack of a
vaccine and many people across the world being malnourished due to the
effects of war, plus rapid spread facilitated by the movement of vast
numbers of troops during World War I's closing stages were primarily to
blame for the enormous death numbers.
The 'Spanish flu' was named such not because it originated in Spain, but
because of wartime censorship. Newspapers were not allowed to report
extensively on mortality in Allied countries, but Spain was neutral, so
they could report on the effects there, thus giving the impression that
Spain was particularly badly hit by the flu.
Clancy's comment: Mio dio!
I'm ...
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