FLU PANDEMICS ARE NOT JUST A THING OF THE PAST

WHILE the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 was the most deadly, there have been other outbreaks of flu, as this timeline reveals. 1918: This form of H1N1 flu (known as Spanish flu, simply because this is where it was first identified) infected a third of the world’s population.

Around 50 million people died worldwide, and the 20 to 40 age group was especially badly hit because, it’s thought, they had not had prior exposure to similar strains of flu.

It killed 228,000 in this country — making it the first year deaths outnumbered births. 1957-8: Dubbed Asian flu, this H2N2 strain was first reported in Singapore in September 1957. Around 1.1 million died around the world, including 20,000 in the UK. 1968: Caused by H3N2, also known as Hong Kong flu, this was a form of avian flu that killed one million around the world and 30,000 in the UK. 2009: The H1N1 (swine flu) virus was first detected in Mexico and the U.S. It killed around half a million people worldwide, 80 per cent of them thought to be under 65, and killed 457 people in the UK. It’s now in common circulation and is regarded as a standard seasonal flu.