| The Spanish Flu |
August 27, 2020
|
| On this day, he went in a cafe which had recently opened that had a lot of books, which customers could read while relaxing and drinking coffee. Customers also could buy any of the books if he/she liked it at a reasonable price, they were all used books. The book that took off the counter to read was a children's book. The author was a non-fiction writer, and wrote about the Spanish Flu. Recently the Spanish Flu was often quoted in this current coronavirus pandemic, the Spanish Flu was the biggest pandemic in human history. This was a translated version of the original book that was published about two decades ago. The publisher thought that the book should be republished in order to study from old experiences and try to make good use of them. He agreed with the idea, and started to read it. The book started with a scene from a party. Soldiers in the camp were celebrating their fortune: in the midst of the Spanish Flu, their camp was miraculously out of it. At the time, the Spanish Flu was rampant all over the world, and took many young soldiers' lives. The influenza was somehow contracted by mainly young adults. It was 100 years ago and during WWI. It was first spread from soldiers of one of the American army camps, then spread all over the world. Even  one century ago, not only soldiers but also travelers and workers passed through countries' borders. It lasted for two years, from 1918 to 1920, leaving a death toll of up to 100 million people. From his knowledge that he got from TV and newspapers, he thought that the number of victims were about 40 million or so, but the book stated that as many as 100 million died. But the most impressive part for him was that the author introduced recent research about the Spanish Flu. In the humans' history, the Spanish Flu was the worst virus pandemic. And, because it was during war time, governments couldn't get correct information. Even some countries might have hidden or used disinformation thinking that a large death rate would be seen as a weakness. And, at the time, science was not as good as afterwards, although they knew the cause of the Spanish Flu was a 'virus'. Later on, some scientists tried to excavate the Spanish Flu. As the soldiers were dispatched broadly, some of them died in very cold areas like Alaska. If the bodies had been frozen until then, their bodies and thus the viruses might have been preserved in the frozen land. The excavation was done two times. It was done very carefully because if the virus was there and if one of the researchers contracted it, the virus might spread, as it was one of the most dangerous viruses ever. The researchers wanted to do this research, thinking that in the future, the virus would once again run rampant, and thus studying about it in advance would be very important. In the book, they excavated the frozen bodies, but couldn't extract the virus suitably; but, even now, experiments were being done to get the DNA information from the old (incomplete) viruses. After reading the book, he became curious about this experiment and searched on the internet about it. ・The virus of the Spanish Flu from the body was decided as being 'H1N1 Influenza A', it was of the family type of the virus of the pandemic in 2009. ・The death rate is estimated to have been 17 million and 100 million. (The book adopted the highest number.) ・The wave of pandemic came four times. First wave: [rampant] March to early August, 1918 [main victims] young adults [intensity of the virus] medium Second wave: [rampant] August to December, 1918 [main victims] elderly and children [intensity of the virus] harder than the first wave Third wave: [rampant] January to June, 1919 [main victims] elderly and children [intensity of the virus] between the first and second wave Forth wave: [rampant] Spring to April, 1920 [main victims] general population [intensity of the virus] in the some areas, harder than the first wave He wondered how elusive the virus was. |
| |
No.397
*quote :引用する
*make good use :活用する
*excavate :発掘する
*dispatch :配置する
*contract :うつる
*rampant :猛威をふるう
*extract :抽出する
*elusive :捕らえどころのない