The history of the flu virus

 

The history of the flu virus

History of pandemic disease is essential to evaluate the amount of destruction it can cause in the coming years. It helps to assess the preventive measures and their effectiveness and to check what can be done in the future to stay safe. It gives a practical approach on how to manage and deal with such pandemic diseases in the future and what further research can be done to fight against the fatal pandemic.

 What do I refer by flu?

It is a highly contagious disease and involves the upper respiratory tract, nasal cavity, throat, and in chronic conditions, lungs. Flu is an airborne disease and is caused by a notorious virus that we call the influenza virus. It has proven to be fatal back in the years, but now the vaccines are available that need to be taken annually.

More about influenza

The influenza virus is a negative sense, single-stranded DNA virus, and it belongs to the family orthomyxoviridae along with virus, quaranjavirus, and thogotovirus. There are influenza viruses that can cause pandemics, and epidemics named A, B, C and A is the most common one. Recently, another genus has been identified in cattle and pigs that give influenza-like illness in Europe and the United States.

Origin of flu

It is a controversial argument that from where did influenza originates basically. In an area corresponding to Mexico, some Aztec texts speak of the dangerous catarrh outbreak in 1450-1456. As America was discovered, scholars debate if it was already present there or was taken by ships and pigs from the rest of the world.

Spanish influenza

It is known to be the most devastating among all the pandemics in 1918-1919. There were almost 21 million deaths reported worldwide, and it was labelled as the most significant medical holocaust in history.

Cause of flu

The disease termed as winter catarrh was believed to be caused by bacteria such as streptococcus, pneumococcus, and andheamophius influenza. Richard Pfeiffer described it during the 1889-1892 epidemic, and it was named bacillus influenza or Pfeiffer's bacillus after him. Even a year before this, a polish microbiologist, Bujwid Feliks Kazimierz, had discovered this bacillus in biopsy material.

 

 

History of influenza

The influenza virus was identified in military personnel for the very first time in the United States. It has proven to be severely pandemic in recent history. It spread out in the world during the years 1918-1919, but its origin is still not known.

It was a unique pandemic disease as it infected the healthy people as well, lying in the age group 20-40. It has a high mortality rate in people older than 65 years, people the ages 20-40 years and children below five years. It is believed that it affected almost one-third of the world or 500 million people. Approximately 50 million people died with this disease.

Why was H1N1 so notorious?

After so much study and research, it is still not confirmed what made this virus so dangerous and life-taking. There were no proper pharmaceutical treatments against flu, and no vaccine or antivirals were known by the, and in fact, it was believed that bacteria caused it. Also, there were not many antibiotics to fight against the bacterial infections that came along with flu and also the immune system was depressed.

So the public was left with no option but isolation, good personal hygiene, avoiding public gatherings, disinfectants, and quarantine. Also, these measures were not taken seriously because people were not so educated, and there was not much awareness about the severity of this illness.

1580 influenza pandemic

Epidemiologists state that the earliest of the outbreaks of influenza was in 1580 despite the lack of consistent and accurate records. It is said that in the 1580 influenza pandemic began from Asia, and it spread to Europe and Africa. It was a rapidly spreading disease, and also people were not aware of its main precautionary measures. Even, the masses were not sure that it could be so fatal and life-threatening. In Rome alone, there were approximately 8000 deaths reported, and it spread from South Europe to North Europe, finally reaching America in only six months.

 

Russian pandemic

After 150 years, another influenza pandemic arose from Russia in 1729. It rapidly spread to Europe within a short period. According to King Louis XV, the illness was spreading like a foolish little girl, which they call Follette in French. The king was also infected with the flu, and so he knew and understood the severity of the disease.

Chinese pandemic

Another 40 years passed by, and another influenza pandemic arose. It originated in China and then led towards Russia, Europe, and America within a short period, that is, one year. When it was at its highest activity, it infected more than 30 000 people in St. Petersburg daily, and more than one-third of Rome's population was affected by it.

1830-1833 influenza pandemics

It began in China and then led towards India, Indonesia, Philippines, Russia, and again Europe through ships and marine trade. As it is an airborne disease, person to person contact was sufficient to cause the illness and even talking to the infected person could prove to be fatal.

Vaccines against influenza

Innovative Techniques and tools like intradermal devices and recombinant technologies are being utilized and assessed to enhance the immunological response. Recently a quadrivalent inactivated vaccine has been introduced with a mutation in the genome of influenza strains. Scientists are striving to synthesize a universal vaccine that is long-lasting and contains an antigen that protects against all influenza virus strains collectively. This is important as it has been seen that vaccination is the best way out of this epidemic and pandemic disease

Conclusion

Prevention is better than cure, and you can never predict the extent of any disease, so keep yourself vaccinated and practice good hygiene.