Flu Virus Evolves Quickly

The flu is one of the oldest diseases known to mankind. We can trace its symptoms back to writings dating as early as the fifth century B.C. The first one to point out the symptoms of the flu (although he doesn’t name it “flu”) was Hippocrates, commonly regarded as the Father of Medicine. In his works, called the “Hippocrates Corpus”, he described the symptoms of the influenza virus for the first time in approximately 412 B.C.

Since then the virus has kept some of these symptoms, but at the same time, it has lost others, and developed new ones. Actually, that’s the hardest part about keeping track of the flu over time: the fact that it’s one of the fastest evolving viruses on the planet, with sometimes radical evolutionary steps from one flu season to the next.

The flu has produced pandemic outbursts, claiming millions of lives during different periods of recorded history. Signs of a milder pandemic took place in ancient Athens, but the first full pandemic was recorded in 1580. Since then influenza pandemics have occurred on a relatively predictable schedule, with 3-4 pandemics every century, each with its own mortality rate and special character.

Various methods have been used over time to try to prevent and treat the flu. The family of viruses that produces the flu, the orthomyxoviridae virus, was discovered only recently, in 1933, by scientists at the United Kingdom’s Research Council. At that time however, the biggest pandemic flu in history had already unleashed its fury over the World from 1918 through 1920.

One of the first fully recorded pandemics was the 1889-1890 Russian Flu. The mortality rate was not high but the reportage of the Russian Flu opened the eyes of international medicine and science to the possibilities of a reoccurrence. Unfortunately, the flu virus evolved faster than early 20th century medicine and we were as defenseless in the next pandemic.

This next pandemic fell in the worst of times, in 1918, right after the First World War ended. The World, and Europe in particular, were hit by a vicious combination of two strains of influenza viruses that triggered the deadliest pandemic known to mankind, the Spanish Flu. This particular flu caught the world unprepared and ruined after the World War. Poor living conditions and the lack of hygiene made it easier for the virus to spread. The virus behind the Spanish Flu, the H1N1 was an “antigenic shift”, or a combination of two different viral strains that combined to form a newer, deadlier influenza virus. When the Spanish Flu ended in 1920, it had infected over 500 million people worldwide, of which at least 40 million died. In comparison, the First World War “only” took about 15 million lives.

Since the Spanish Flu of 1918 the World has gone through several other flu pandemics, such as the Asian Flu in 1957-1958 (1.5 million deaths), the Hong Kong Flu in 1968-1969 (1 million deaths), the New Jersey “Swine” Flu in 1976 and as of late, the Avian Flu that started in 1997. Thankfully, Avian Flu has not yet reached the status of a pandemic.