Influenza pandemic (2024)

FAQs

Why is the flu not considered a pandemic? ›

A seasonal flu epidemic is usually caused by an existing flu strain that increases in a certain geographic area. A pandemic flu virus is a new flu strain that hasn't circulated for a long time, if ever.

An influenza pandemic is a global outbreak of a new influenza A virus. Pandemics happen when new (novel) influenza A viruses emerge which are able to infect people easily and spread from person to person in an efficient and sustained way.

The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919.

When influenza appeared in the United States in 1918, Americans responded to the incursion of disease with measures used since Antiquity, such as quarantines and social distancing. During the pandemic's zenith, many cities shut down essential services.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, has declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic (1).

Pandemics are known to cause large-scale social disruption, economic loss, and general hardship, and COVID-19 has been no exception.

Typically, a pandemic is bigger than an epidemic and includes spread over several countries or continents. Usually, for this to occur, the disease is spread easily from person-to-person.

A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. It differs from an outbreak or epidemic because it: affects a wider geographical area, often worldwide. infects a greater number of people than an epidemic.

Cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, and influenza are some of the most brutal killers in human history. And outbreaks of these diseases across international borders, are properly defined as pandemic, especially smallpox, which throughout history, has killed between 300-500 million people in its 12,000 year existence.

Today, the COVID-19 pandemic is frequently compared with the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. The destruction caused by that pandemic a century ago may sound familiar. Yet, direct comparisons of the 1918 flu pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic may not be completely fair, according to one scientist.

How many people died of influenza? ›

The flu pandemic lasts from 1918 to 1920. From spring of 1918 to spring of 1919, the flu causes more than 550,000 deaths in the U.S. and more than 20 million deaths worldwide. In the fall of 1918 at Mayo Clinic, people with the flu and other contagious illnesses are cared for in the isolation hospital.

There were no nationwide prevention methods in place against the Spanish flu. Some communities did put into place prevention methods that may look familiar to us today. The measures included: Isolation, or staying away from crowds of people.

The 1918 flu pandemic lasted about 18 months and ended after either people had been exposed to the virus or it became less life threatening. With new variants come new questions about where the pandemic is headed, and whether we will need annual boosters or modified vaccines.

“Having a name matters to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing. It also gives us a standard format to use for any future coronavirus outbreaks,” said Ghebreyesus.

The Yale team predicts that in 2024 – four years after the pandemic began in March 2020 – about 15% of the population could be infected at any given time. In the meantime, the virus will constantly circulate, and certain populations will remain more vulnerable to it.

“So yeah, basically it's looking very unlikely,” he says. For an infectious disease to be considered eradicated, there cannot be a single case of it worldwide. So far, the only human infectious disease to be eradicated is smallpox, in 1980.

Worldwide, these annual epidemics are estimated to result in about 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness, and about 290 000 to 650 000 respiratory deaths. In industrialized countries most deaths associated with influenza occur among people age 65 or older (1).

Disease forecasters are convinced there's a 27% chance of another COVID-like pandemic within 10 years—but experts believe there's a silver bullet. The global health community will have to act more proactively than they did with COVID if they want to reduce the risk of another pandemic, Airfinity believes.

What is a pandemic vs epidemic? ›

Let's start with basic definitions: AN EPIDEMIC is a disease that affects a large number of people within a community, population, or region. A PANDEMIC is an epidemic that's spread over multiple countries or continents. ENDEMIC is something that belongs to a particular people or country.

There have been 249 Pandemics throughout recorded history from 1,200 BC, up to the Covid- 19 virus today.

A February 2021 survey of over 100 scientists found that over half said they did not believe the virus could be eradicated, and 89% of them believe that COVID-19 will become endemic over time.

The correct option is 4, i.e Elephantiasis. According to a WHO Handout released recently, Cholera, Malaria, and Smallpox form part of the "Epidemics" around the world.

While challenging to directly compare, it is likely that COVID-19 will not eventuate as the most damaging pandemic to society, both historically and in the modern age. The other pandemics discussed herein have had significant impacts on societies globally, with larger rates of infection and mortality.

Ischemic heart disease, or coronary artery disease

The deadliest disease in the world is coronary artery disease (CAD). Also known as ischemic heart disease, CAD occurs when the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart become narrowed. Untreated CAD can lead to chest pain, heart failure, and arrhythmias.

Ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of death around the globe. Other conditions, such as stroke, COPD, lower respiratory infections, and respiratory cancers, also account for a significant portion of deaths each year.

Black Death: 75-200M (1334-1353)

It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919. In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918.

How many people died from the flu in 1918? ›

The microscopic killer circled the entire globe in four months, claiming the lives of more than 21 million people. The United States lost 675,000 people to the Spanish flu in 1918-more casualties than World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined.

The Challenge: Some Infections Live in Animal Hosts

Yet even if we could vaccinate everyone around the world, we would not be able to eradicate influenza. There are many different strains of influenza virus, and they mutate frequently—so new vaccines must constantly be created to keep up.

Seasonal influenza activity remains low nationally.

The 1918 H1N1 flu pandemic, sometimes referred to as the “Spanish flu,” killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, including an estimated 675,000 people in the United States. An unusual characteristic of this virus was the high death rate it caused among healthy adults 15 to 34 years of age.

The longest-enduring pandemic disease outbreak is the Seventh Cholera Pandemic, which originated in Indonesia and began to spread widely in 1961.

Both the flu and COVID-19 cause a cough and shortness of breath, but overall, COVID-19 symptoms tend to last longer than the flu. “They can last for multiple weeks, if not months,” says Dr. Wong.

The 1957 flu pandemic was caused by influenza H2N2 virus, to which few people had previous exposure. A vaccine was rapidly developed against H2N2, though later assessment showed that more vaccine than usual was needed to produce immunity. H2N2 no longer circulates in humans but is carried by animals.

COVID-19 deaths surpassing 1918 flu pandemic deaths "provides a historical benchmark because, until the present, we have always had the 1918-1919 flu as the biggest epidemic of any kind that had ever affected the US," said William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt ...

The human H1N1 lineage caused pandemic and endemic influenza from 1918 to 1956, then disappeared entirely around 1957 only to reappear in relatively low-level pandemic form in 1977. It has continued to circulate endemically in humans up to the present time (2009).

Demographers estimate the global population in 1918 at about 1.8 billion persons. These figures suggest that about 30% of the world's population was infected during that pandemic and that it killed about 2.7% of that population.

Did people become immune to the Spanish flu? ›

Thus, these studies reveal that survivors of the 1918 influenza pandemic possess highly functional, virus-neutralizing antibodies to this uniquely virulent virus, and that humans can sustain circulating B memory cells to viruses for many decades after exposure - well into the tenth decade of life.

“You can still find the genetic traces of the 1918 virus in the seasonal flus that circulate today,” says Taubenberger. “Every single human infection with influenza A in the past 102 years is derived from that one introduction of the 1918 flu.”

In 1918, nearly all humans were immunologically susceptible to infection with the A/H1N1 pandemic strain; not surprisingly, the pandemic spread rapidly worldwide.

A CDC study released 28 January 2013, estimated that the Pandemic H1N1 vaccine saved roughly 300 lives and prevented about a million illnesses in the US. The study concluded that had the vaccination program started two weeks earlier, close to 60% more cases could have been prevented.

The 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic

The death toll reached an estimated 50 million across the globe. In the U.S., around 675,000 people were estimated to have died from the Spanish flu.

The pandemic broke out near the end of World War I, when wartime censors in the belligerent countries suppressed bad news to maintain morale, but newspapers freely reported the outbreak in neutral Spain, creating a false impression of Spain as the epicenter and leading to the "Spanish flu" misnomer.

People are exposed to influenza viruses throughout their lives, so most people have had exposure to the influenza strains that cause seasonal flu. Pandemic flu occurs when a new strain emerges that infects people, spreads easily from person-to-person, and to which most people do not have immunity.

AN EPIDEMIC is a disease that affects a large number of people within a community, population, or region. A PANDEMIC is an epidemic that's spread over multiple countries or continents. ENDEMIC is something that belongs to a particular people or country.

Even though the flu and COVID-19 are caused by totally different viruses, they share a number of symptoms: Fever. Fatigue. Cough.

It's possible that it's not a mutation in one gene, but a combination of mutations in multiple genes, that render a small number of people immune to COVID. Targeting multiple genes without causing any unwanted side-effects can be tricky and would make it much harder to harness this knowledge for anti-COVID drugs.

What are the 3 flu pandemics? ›

Three worldwide (pandemic) outbreaks of influenza occurred in the 20th century: in 1918, 1957, and 1968. The latter 2 were in the era of modern virology and most thoroughly characterized. All 3 have been informally identified by their presumed sites of origin as Spanish, Asian, and Hong Kong influenza, respectively.

While challenging to directly compare, it is likely that COVID-19 will not eventuate as the most damaging pandemic to society, both historically and in the modern age. The other pandemics discussed herein have had significant impacts on societies globally, with larger rates of infection and mortality.

Four pandemics have occurred in the last 100 years, in 1918, 1957, 1968 and 2009. Scientists predict that another pandemic will happen, although they cannot say exactly when.

Historically, most pandemics last between 2 and a half to 3 and a half years. Over time, pandemic viruses typically mutate and evolve into an endemic disease that circulates at lower, more manageable levels.

Plague of Justinian: 30-50 million people (541-549)

The disease – now confirmed to be bubonic plague – reached Constantinople, capital of the Late Roman or Byzantine Empire, in 541 AD. It was soon killing 10,000 people a day. Corpses littered public spaces and were stacked like produce indoors.

Ebola virus disease (commonly known as "Ebola") was first described in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and what is now South Sudan. The 2013–2016 outbreak, caused by Ebola virus (EBOV), was the first anywhere in the world to reach epidemic proportions.

Diabetes is a global epidemic affecting an estimated 382 million people worldwide.