Interesting Facts

The WHO (World Health Organisation) has new rules for avoiding offensive names for new diseases. (The new guidelines are aimed at removing the stigma that can be inflicted by diseases that use the names of people, places, and animals. The new guidelines called “The Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases” would discourage names like Spanish flu, German measles, Ebola, swine flu , bird flu, Rift Valley Fever, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, monkey pox, and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), and encourage the use of more neutral, generic terms, such as severe respiratory disease or novel neurologic syndrome. Under the new guidelines, Marburg disease (named after a city in Germany) might have been called filovirus-associated haemorrhagic fever, while Ebola (named after a river) might have been filovirus-associated haemorrhagic fever.) Source

According to analysis of data from the Office for National Statistics by SSentif , the NHS in the UK spends more than £440m a year on painkillers. (This works out at £8.80 per person, with some GPs giving patients over-the-counter painkillers and branded cold and flu treatments like Lemsip and Anadin on prescription. My doctor once prescribed coffee and red wine (long story), but he wouldn't give me a prescription.)

Anti-viral drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza, don't attack the virus. (They attack an enzyme that allows the virus to spread within the body. The enzyme, Neuraminidase is the "N" used in identifying a flu strain.)

An outbreak of swine flu in 1976 infected 200 people in the US. (Only one person died, but a vaccine administered to 40m people killed 25 and led to 500 others developing Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can be fatal.)

According to research at Imperial College London, bird flu may not have become the threat to humans that some predicted because our noses are too cold for the virus to thrive. (Seemingly at 32° Celsius, avian flu viruses lose function and cannot spread. I'll never complain about having a cold nose again.)

The name influenza comes from the Italian word, influenza, meaning "influence" (Latin: influentia). (It refers to the cause of the disease; which ascribed illness to unfavorable astrological influences. Changes in medical thought led to its modification to influenza del freddo, meaning "influence of the cold". The word was first used in English in 1743 when it was adopted, with an anglicized pronunciation, during an outbreak of the disease in Europe. Archaic terms for influenza include epidemic catarrh, grippe (from the French), sweating sickness, and Spanish fever (particularly for the 1918 pandemic strain). No matter what you call it it's horrible.)

According to the CDC (Centre for Disease Control), around 36,000 people in the USA die from influenza-related complications each year. (Actually records are confusing and not that well kept, so it could be more, or less.)

A single sneeze propels 100,000 germ laden droplets into the air at 90mph. (According to cold and flu expert Dr Roger Henderson, just one sneeze on a crowded train can give 150 passengers a cold in just five minutes. This means that 10 per cent of commuters will come into contact with an area infected by just one sneeze, and researchers for cold and flu remedy Lemsip found that 99 per cent of commuters suffered at least one cold last winter. As my mother used to say "Coughs and sneezes spread diseases,catch them in your handkerchief!" And with the availability of paper tissues, there is no excuse not to do this.)

The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 killed more than 20 million people worldwide. (One fifth of the world's population was infected. The disease was first observed at Fort Riley, Kansas, United States, on March 4, 1918.)

Cats can catch bird flu. (Poor Spooky has to be kept in now. As do all cats in Germany.)

Every winter influenza kills about 12,000 people in the UK. (Guess what?   I just had my flu jab.)

Spanish Flu, the influenza epidemic that killed 50 million people in 1918/9, was known as French Flu in Spain. (Now we just blame birds and piggies.)

The Spanish flu virus that killed 50 million people in 1918-19 was probably a strain that originated in birds. (I became worried about this when my doctor asked me if I would like a flu jab for the first time. Then I realised it's probably because of my age - sigh.)