What defines pandemic influenza?
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.
What happened during the 1918 influenza?
It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.
What was the Spanish flu summary?
The Spanish flu was a pandemic — a new influenza A virus that spread easily and infected people throughout the world. Because the virus was new, very few people, if any, had some immunity to the disease. From 1918 to 1919, the Spanish flu infected an estimated 500 million people globally.
Why do flu pandemics occur?
Influenza pandemics happen when a new strain of a flu virus appears which can infect humans, to which most people have no immunity and which can transmit efficiently from human to human.
How did influenza start?
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 did the 1918 influenza spread throughout the world?
Outbreaks of the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 occurred in nearly every inhabited part of the world. Although it remains uncertain where the virus first emerged, it quickly spread through western Europe and around the world—first in ports, then from city to city along main transportation routes.
What ended the 1918 pandemic?
February 1918 – April 1920Spanish flu / Period
What factors contributed to the spread of influenza in 1918?
Much of the virus transmission can be attributed to crowding in military camps and the urban environments. In addition, there were unhealthy wartime conditions, such as poor nutrition and sanitation. In 1918, many people got very sick, very quickly. The disease often progressed to organ failure and pneumonia.
What are characteristics of pandemic?
A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. An influenza pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges for which there is little or no immunity in the human population, begins to cause serious illness and then spreads easily person-to-person worldwide.
When did 1918 pandemic end?
Where does influenza come from?
Answer: Influenza is a virus that’s spread from person to person. It originates, actually, among birds and other animals such as pigs, and new viral strains of influenza come to this country and to Europe from Southeast Asia. That’s the global pattern.
What country did influenza come from?
What is the history of Influenza? Records show that the flu has been around for at least 1,500 years. The history of influenza begins with Hippocrates (5th century BC) who first reported that an influenza-like illness spread from Northern Greece to the islands south and elsewhere.
When did the 1918 flu end?
What are examples of a pandemic?
Other examples of pandemics in recent history
- The 2009 swine flu pandemic: The flu strain that caused this outbreak, H1N1, was first identified in the U.S. in April 2009.
- The HIV/AIDS pandemic: The first cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, appeared in 1981.
What is the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic?
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.