Plague - Flu - Influenza: Whatever the name, it's Deadly

Soon the plague was everywhere. And no one was safe.
The sickness preyed on the young and the healthy. One day you are fine, strong and invulnerable. You might be busy at work in your office. Or maybe you are knitting a scarf for the brave troops fighting the war to end all wars. Or maybe you are a soldier reporting for basic training your first time away from home and family.

You might notice a dull headache. your eyes might start to burn. you start to shiver, and you will take to your bed, curling up in a ball. But no amount of blankets can keep you warm. you fall into a restless sleep, dreaming the distorted nightmares of delirium as your fever climbs. And when you drift out of sleep, into a sort of semi-consciousness, your muscles will ache and your head will throb and you will somehow know, step by step, as your body feebly cries out "no," you are moving steadily toward death.

It may take a few days, it may take a few hours, but there is nothing that can stop the disease's progress. Doctors and nurses have learned to spot the signs. Your face turns a dark brownish purple. You start to cough up blood. Your feet turn black. Finally, as the end nears, you frantically gasp for breath. A blood-tinged saliva bubbles out of your mouth. You die - by drowning, actually - as your lungs fill with reddish fluid.

And when a doctor does an autopsy, he will observe your lungs lying heavy and sodden in your chest, engorged with a thin bloody liquid, useless, like slabs of liver.


Excerpt from the book "Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It." by Gina Kolata

With all the talk about this Bird Flu in Southeast Asia I began re-reading a book that I never quite finished. People are now starting to look back at the year 1918 and the Influenza Flu that came and went like a thief in the night, stealing the lives of over 1.5 million Americans alone. Rather than try to find out more about it over the years it seems the country and the rest of the world just swept the catastrophic event under the rug. They never found out what caused it or where it really came from. 

This book claims that it started somewhere in Kansas and touched on every part of the world. It came during a time of World War and might have caused an early end to the war. If you look at different records for the year 1918 you may find a drop in activity or no activity at all. Such was the effects this Flu had on all aspects of life during that time. It was compared to the Black Death of the Middle Ages. And the scary part about it is they expect it to return someday. I hope we're ready. Actually, the scariest thought is it's a man-made virus that was created by a country as a weapon of war and was accidently unleashed on the world in 1918. Why else would there be hardly anything about this deadly flu.

As an avid reader I sometimes come across books that just down right scare the shit out of me because it's about something that's so real. This is one of those books. Frankenstein and Dracula, Freddy and Jason, The Wicked Witch of the West and all those ugly Monkeys didn't make me tremble and shake like The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918. I should end my panicky comment with a line from the book that makes me feel it could happen again.

"Scientists have recently discovered shards of the flu virus in human remains frozen in the Arctic tundra and in scraps of tissue preserved in a government warehouse."

Yes, PRESERVED in a government warehouse. Give me Michael Meyers from Halloween with butcher knife in hand any day. Just don't tell me the next cold I get could be my last.