Influenza Epidemic

"The symptoms of the 'Spanish’ influenza (1918) – so-called because Spain, as opposed to countries involved in the conflict, did not censor reports of the spreading plague - included a hacking cough, projectile nose bleeds, and a condition known as heliotrope cyanosis, a dark-blue discoloration caused by shortage of oxygen to the lungs. Unlike most strains, it did not just strike the very young and old but also the 20-40-year-old age group. Around 228,000 Britons perished, and worldwide, it killed at least 50 million – ten times as many as had died in the war.

Now, as the world faces the prospect of a new pandemic - mostly likely triggered by the bird flu virus H5N1 - the question has to be asked: how would Britain cope with a similar outbreak today? In the event of a repeat of 1918, the Department of Health calculates that a quarter of the UK population could fall sick over a fifteen-week period and 375,000 people could die. But the Armageddon scenario is that a new avian virus could have an even worse impact - resulting in more than 450,000 deaths."

A couple of months ago a person giving a lecture said that during a conversation he had with the British Health Minister he was told that "the UK government is anticipating an influenza epidemic that will wipe out a third of UK population. The minister said it should have happened between two years ago and next year"...