When, What And Who

November 7, 1918, something that sounds ‘familiar’ to our 21st century strained ears, focused on and in anticipation with a global virus, got recognized. Known as the Spanish Flu, it spread to nearly every corner of the world. It lasted from March 1918 to June 1920. It’s estimated that anywhere from 50 to 100 million people got killed and an estimated 500 million infected. It was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly influenza A virus (subtype H1N1). Data so far have been inadequate to identify the geographic origin of the virus, and very likely always will be. 

The second wave of the pandemic was much deadlier than the first. Where the first wave showed typical classic flu signs, it were the sick and elderly who were most at risk. But in August, when the second wave began, the virus had mutated. This has been attributed to the circumstances of the First World War. While this war didn’t cause the flu, the massive troop gatherings and troop movements made it easier for soldiers, sailors, and civilian travelers to spread the disease quickly to communities worldwide. 

After the lethal second wave struck in autumn 1918, the disease died down abruptly. New cases almost dropped to nothing after the peak in the second wave. Most of its victims then had been healthy young adults, something that can be witnessed, more and more it seems, in these days. Is that a sign that we got the same devil at its tail again? Was it a wise thing, even for the right reason, to revive that particular influenza virus in a lab, for instance? We’ve been speculating and waiting for decades about the When, What and Who, let’s hope it will remain that way. That we’ll never find out. Image by Photobucket/bebazatarain