Before the H1N1 Pandemic: A Brief History of H1N1 October 8
June 11, 2009 marks the day that the A(H1N1) influenza outbreak was declared by the World Health Organization as a global pandemic. This was the first time that the WHO has put up an alert level 6 against such an outbreak since the 1968 Hong Kong Flu. And yet, despite this fact, we have had a long history with the A(H1N1) virus.
The first outbreak of the A(H1N1) virus in modern history was the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918. The outbreak was named as thus not because it originated in Spain but because only Spain reported extensively on it. This outbreak killed around 50 to 100 million people all over the world.
The current outbreak of the A(H1N1) virus is actually similar in some ways to the Spanish Flu outbreak. Although the structure of the virus is similar to those endemic in pigs in the United States, it was found that its structure contains genetic material from the swine flu virus, the avian flu virus and the human flu virus.
For full version of this article, please visit “Before the H1N1 Pandemic: A Brief History of H1N1“.
Tags: avian flu, avian flu virus, flu outbreak of 1918, global pandemic, H1N1, hong kong flu, influenza, influenza outbreak, spanish flu, swine flu