Hello Steemit community ! I am a nurse and I come to this influenza cases commonly from children to adults in the post duty cases. As I see this @sndbox post on #explore1918 tag for the competition, I have my entry here !
A 100 years back, From the bustling cities and remote villages in the United states and around the world, there were many orphaned children who cried for their family in the 1918. People from various place, various culture and religion struggled with the same dangerous cause. It would be around 50 million people dead in a matter of 1 month. In the United states, around 675 thousand people died which is around 5 times the number of soldiers of United States who dies in the WWI (World War 1).
1918 flu epidemic killing people (source)
What was that deadly threat ?
Nowdays, people are used to "flu season" which comes every year from time to time. Eradicating such type of flu, we use some kind of vaccines, wash hands before and after meal and even avoid sneezing in front of crowded people. People nowdays aren't much caring for the occurrence of flu.
A hundred years ago ? At the start of 1918, a normal flu just devastated the world. The deadliest outbreak in the history, it was a global influenza pandemic which killed people from anywhere around 50 to 100 million ones.
Called as "Mother of all pandemics". Researchers concluded what was it that made it deadly ! "
Among the cities in the United states, Philadelphia had one of the highest sickness and death which caused a major disruption. Many cities struggled for the resistance to the flu by putting some kind of measures. The measures included avoiding the public gathering in various parks and places where the flu can spread easily from person to person. Many cities made the large parade to take place to help the troops fighting the world war 1 and raising money. They did this by wearing some gauze masks. But many people got infected as many has already suffered from the causative agent.
History of Influenza pandemic (source)
Baltimore was the other major city which was badly affected after Philadelphia. People feared against the disease more badly as Philadelphia. Camp Meade soldiers which was south of the city suffered from the mid- september, later at the october, the death toll reached 2000 diseased cases. All the schools and offices began to close where the people gathered most oftenly. Meeting places where sick and the diseased contact were closed. This made some emotional effect in the hospitals and churches. People running the city business were too sick in the bed to run the city as normal.
The Influenza of 1918 was a serious one which caused a pandemic effect around the world. This was the major cause for many cases of illness and deaths in the 1918.
Why was the influenza of 1918 more deadly than the seasonal influenza which we experience every winter and other seasonal influenza ? What was such a difference between these flu ?
According to the Epidemiologists, they are also not sure from where this killer flu originated . People say that it originated from the China while many other says that it originated from the military soldiers in Kansas.
Chart showing the death by flu (source)
Influenza that causes the annual outbreaks in the world epidemics during the winter and spring season, these are the influenza virus that are circulating in the human population from different parts of the world. They are changing little by little and evolving by slight structures. Some percentage of people gets infected every year , some percent recover from medication or of self-limited illness. People surviving this influenza case begin to produce some kind of immunity. People get vaccinated and many people further get immunity via vaccine. So, natural infection surviving can provide a immunity and vaccine in the other way also provide some level of immunity.
Vaccine starts to produce some kind of antibodies in our body which further reacts with out body's immune system making immune to certain viruses.
Influenza Pandemic is different from all other influenza. It was the first cases in the 1918 which was not occurred before to any people. It was a emergence of a very new Influenza A virus. No immunity was there in the population. Not even a immune protection by vaccine. So this was the cause for many people being sick worldwide and death reaching highest number. The virus generated from the wild ducks, birds, geese and other various types of birds and even from the poultry chickens which can directly enter inside the human beings. Not only human beings, it can also enter into horses, pigs, dogs and cats easily. From this pathway, it enters inside the human beings. The genetic mutations propagate and becomes stable in certain species which can transfer to other animals easily . When comparing with the human stand-point, it can easily be transferred. Pregnant women were at high risk in suffering from influenza virus.
Regardless, from where it was started, the flu was so dangerous that many people believed that this was a biological warfare.
Biology :
This Influenza virus is categorized into four types - Influenza A to D
Influenza A takes a major role in making this devastating disease. This types of Influenza is categorized because of it's surface protein. By two surface protein:
Influenza A virus (source)
Haemagglutinin [ 18 varieties]
Neuraminidase [11 varieties]
It gives the strain name as "H1N1"
When it attacks our body, our immune system builds up the antibodies that fight against the viruses. They protect when it recognizes as foreign body. But in case of Influenza, it mutates into various types and our body cannot recognize as foreign body resulting into no generation of antibodies against it which is called as "antigenic -shift". This is why it was called as "flu pandemics".
This post is my entry to @sndbox 's challenge #explore1918 .
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Mentioned source :
https://virus.stanford.edu/uda/