First of all, what exactly is a pandemic? The World Health Organization speaks of this when a disease spreads around the world and many people are affected by the disease. More than 110 countries are currently affected by the coronavirus, so the WHO speaks of a pandemic.
Mexican flu
For the last pandemic, we have to go back to 2009. Swine flu broke out in Mexico, which eventually spreads to the rest of the world. Later the flu was renamed the ‘Mexican flu’ in the media.
–
–
In June 2009, the WHO officially declared the Mexican flu a pandemic. From Mexico, the virus quickly spread to neighboring countries. Europe did not escape it either. In the Netherlands, almost 1,500 people eventually became infected. 54 of them did not survive.
Asia
Hong Kong flu and Asian flu occurred in Asia in the 1950s and 60s. The virus, as the name says, first started in Hong Kong. It is not entirely certain, but it is estimated that a million people died.
–
–
About ten years earlier, the Asian flu passed through the world. In fact, the disease turned out to be a bit more deadly than the Hong Kong flu. 1.1 million people did not survive. The Asian flu started in Singapore, but soon reached the world.
–
–
Remarkably, unlike the coronavirus, people under the age of 39 were hardest hit. That has everything to do with the Spanish flu, which caused many victims after the First World War. People born around that war had built up resistance to the Spanish flu, but not to the new Asian variant.
Spanish flu
Spanish flu therefore preceded Hong Kong flu and Asian flu. The name is a bit confusing. The flu did not originate in Spain, but in the United States. However, the flu was named after Spain, because Spanish newspapers were the first to report on the spread of the disease. The flu spread at the end of the First World War and Spain as a neutral country was not so busy reporting on the war.
–
–
The flu virus was spread through the rest of the world through American war troops. In the end, it became the deadliest flu pandemic ever. Between 50 and 100 million people did not survive. In the Netherlands, the pandemic claimed an estimated 30 thousand lives.
–
–
