A possible pandemic?
Influenza has become a common illness among humans that its occurrence is no longer a threat. However, viruses have the ability to mutate, some becoming more dangerous. Today’s population may not believe it, but looking at history, flu outbreaks have actually taken more lives than you could have imagined. Check this out:
1918 to 1919 Spanish flu pandemic, also remembered as the Black Death or the plague.
Exact numbers for this pandemic are hard to establish, and different sources offer different numbers, but in the same general range. Estimates suggest that between 20% and 50% of the entire world’s population was infected, and as many as 50 million people died.
It was noted that most at risk of the disease were the healthy group aged 15 to 40. Normally, that age group are more resistant to viral infections. Since the virus is air borne, human to human transfer happened fast and easy, that in some areas, people wore masks and even hand shaking was banned.
image: www.health.gov.ab.ca