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Timeline: World History of Viral Pandemics:412BC to 2009
 
When observing the swine flu outbreak happening today, it's helpful to have somehistorical context. Viral pandemics are not unusual, and talking about one isn't"alarmist." Pandemics are a regular feature of life on earth, and they occur withsurprising regularity throughout world history.Wherever there are masses of people, there are opportunities for viruses to spread.It is especially important to note that even with all of today's "advanced" medicaltechnology (which really isn't that advanced in many ways), today's swineflu virus eluded
all
the world'sinfectious diseaseauthorities, spreading to more than sevendifferent countries before it even appeared on the CDC's radar. Modern technology, itturns out, is no more effective at halting the spread of swine fluthan having notechnology at all.Here's a timeline of all the larger pandemics recorded throughout human history.This timeline is borrowed from the bookHow to Beat the Bird Fluby Mike Adams.The full book can be purchased in downloadable or hardcopy editions atwww.TruthPublishing.com.412 BC – Majorepidemicof a disease (which, although not calledinfluenza, probably was influenza) recorded by Hippocrates.1357 AD – The term, "influenza," from the Italian word meaning "influence," wascoined. Popular belief at that time blamed the development of flu on the influence of the stars.1485 – "Sweating sickness," a flu-like malady, sickens hundreds of thousands of people in Britain. The Lord Mayor of London, his successor and six aldermen die. TheRoyal Navy cannot leave port due to the sickness of sailors. Doctors prescribetobacco juice, lime juice, emetics, cathartics and bleeding as treatments for thedisease.1580 – First recordedinfluenza pandemicbegins in Europe and spreads toAsiaand Africa.1700s – Influenza pandemics in 1729-1730, 1732-1733, 1781-1782.1781 – Major epidemic causing high mortality amongthe elderlyspreads acrossRussia from Asia.1830 – Major epidemic causing high mortality among theelderlyspreads acrossRussia from Asia.1831, 1833-1834 – Influenza pandemics hit.1847-1848 – Influenza sweeps through the Mediterranean to southern France andthen continues across in Western Europe.
 
 1878 – A disease causing high mortality inpoultrybecomes known as the "fowlplague." Fowl plague is now called HPAIavian influenza. 1889-1890 – The "Russian flu" spreads through Europe and reaches NorthAmerica in 1890.1900 – Major epidemic.1918-1919 – The "Spanish Flu" circles the globe (though some experts think it mayhave started in the U.S.). Caused by an H1N1 flu virus, it is the worst influenzapandemic(and subsequently, epidemic) to date. There are more than half a millionU.S. deaths; worldwide death estimates range from 20 million to 100 million.According to WebMD, "The pandemic comes before the era of antibiotics -- which arenow essential in treating the secondary bacterialinfectionsthat often kill flu-weakened patients -- so it's difficult to say whether this flu would have the samedreadful impact in the modern world. But it is a very frightening disease, with veryhigh death rates among young, previously healthy adults."1924 – The firstoutbreakof HPAI avian influenza --bird flu-- in the U.S. It does not spread among humans.Late 1920s – Richard Shope shows that swine influenza can be transmitted throughfiltered mucous, implying that influenza is caused by a virus.1933 – Sir Christopher Andrewes, Wilson Smith and Sir Patrick Laidlaw isolate thefirst human influenza virus.1940 – Frank Macfarlane Burnet grows influenza on a laboratory growth system(embryonated chicken eggs).1941 – George K. Hirst discovers that influenza causes hemagglutination of redblood cells, thus providing a new method of assaying for the virus1955 – Sir Christopher Andrewes, along with Burnet and Bang, coins the term"myxovirus" for the influenza family.1957-1958 – The "Asian Flu" causes the second pandemic of the 20th century.Caused by an H2N2 virus, it begins in China and kills one million people worldwide,including 70,000 Americans.1968-1969 – The "Hong KongFlu" causes the lastflu pandemic. It was caused by an H3N2 virus and killed some 34,000 Americans. The relatively low death toll isthought to have been due to two factors. First, the virus contained the N2 proteinhumans had been exposed to before. Second, an H3 virus circulated around the turnof the century, giving some immune protection to elderly people who had caughtthefluback then.Mid-1970s – Researchers realize that enormous pools of influenza virus continuouslycirculate in wild birds.1976 – Swine flu breaks out among a handful of soldiers stationed at Fort Dix, N.J.One dies. It's an H1N1 virus, andhealthofficials worry that they are seeing the
 
return of the 1918 H1N1 Spanish Flu pandemic. As the virus is circulating amongU.S. pigs, President GeraldFordcalls for a crashvaccinationprogram. Despite delays, a vaccine is made and a quarter of the U.S. population is inoculated. Therewere 25 deaths from a rare paralytic complication of the vaccination (Guillain-Barresyndrome). Nobody else died of swine flu, which never caused an epidemic.1977 – Mild Russian influenza epidemic occurs.1983 – The second HPAI outbreak occurs in the U.S. Caused by an H5N2 virus, itdoes not spread among humans. However, this severe poultry epidemic strikeschickens, turkeys and guinea fowl in Pennsylvania and Virginia. It is finally broughtunder control after the destruction of 17 million birds.1988 – Wiley, Wilson and Skehel determine the location of the antigenic sites on thehemagglutinin molecule by X-ray crystallography.1996 – HPAIH5N1bird flu is isolated from a farmed goose in Guangdong, China.May 1997 – The first person known to catch H5N1 bird flu dies in Hong Kong. Thevirus has been causing an epidemic among poultry in the city.November-December 1997 – There are 18 new human cases of H5N1 bird flu inHong Kong, 12 with direct contact with infected poultry. Six people die. Officialsdestroy 1.4 million chickens and ducks.Jan. 5, 2003 – Health authorities in Vietnam informthe WHOoffice in Hanoi of anoutbreak of severe respiratory illness in 11 previously healthy children hospitalized inHanoi, with the most recenthospitaladmission on Jan. 4. Seven cases were fatal andtwo patients remain critically ill. A 12th case, a sibling of one of the Hanoi cases,died of a respiratory illness in a provincial hospital.
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Included in this report are six children, aged 9 months to 12 years, who diedin a Hanoi hospital of respiratory illness of unidentified cause between Oct. 31and Dec. 30, 2003. For the first five cases, no samples are available foranalysis. Samples are available for the 6th case, a 12 year-old girl who wasadmitted to hospital on Dec. 27 and died three days later. All of these caseswere identified retrospectively based on hospital records.
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It is not known whether all cases were caused by the same pathogen. Thepathogen is unknown, but thought to be an influenza virus or an adenovirus.Arrangements are made for testing.
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WHO assistance in responding to the outbreak is requested. WHOheadquarters and the regional office in Manila are alerted.Jan. 6, 2003 – A member of the press informs the WHO office in Hanoi of rumoredchicken deaths in southern Vietnam. The regional office in Manila is alerted.Jan. 7, 2003 – WHO informspublic healthofficials worldwide through itselectronically distributed Outbreak Verification List.Jan. 8, 2003 – Authorities in Vietnam report outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian
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