I'm the influenza pandemic of 1918.
I was an influenza A virus H1N1 type flu.
I was called Spanish flu when I got to Spain early on.
In Spain I was called 'La Grippe'.
I had H1N1 that one no had seen before,
So no one was immune.
I spread all over the world at the end of WW1.
I went through the soldiers and then the rest of the world.
Some of my brother flu viruses killed the weak, the very young or very old.
I was deadliest to healthy young people.
I lasted for 2 years and killed 40 million people.
That's more than World War 1 and more than the black death!
6 comments:
I like this one a lot =)
It is theorized that the virus actually started in Kansas. It killed the healthy by causing their immune systems to overreact. A person could go from healthy one day to dead the next. Some estimates say that as much as 1% of the world's population died from the Spanish Flu.
The virus has been recreated in the lab from people who died in the Arctic and were buried in the perma-frost. It is still amazingly deadly.
John Barry's book is a very good examination of the topic.
Ehm, nope. It was called Spanish Flu because while the people died by millions in the First World War, the info about deaths by influenza was intercepted by the authorities in whole Europe, in order to keep up the moral of the soldiers avoiding them to know their families were dying too. The only country in Europe that provided information through their newspapers were the spanish ones, so the started to call it the Spanish Flu.
Both Tom P and the last anonymous are right, the virus started in Kansas and was brought to Europe by american troops, the gate was Brest in France. It was called Spanish because the spanish newspapers were the only ones that wrote about the pandemic.
Hola Enma.
Gracias por tus ingeniosos poemas y tus dibujos.... los hubiera agradecido mucho en mi época de estudiante. Le pasaré el link de tu blog a mi hija (estudiante de enfermería).
Por supuesto adoptaré al malvado virus llamado de la "gripe española".
Un saludo desde España.
Wonderful! And very cute :D! But in Spanish it's called "La Gripe", with only one "p" :D
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