Getting To Know Influenza, The Terrible 'Ancestor' Of COVID-19 Since The 16th Century

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The world is currently facing the corona virus or COVID-19. The symptoms of the corona virus are similar to those of influenza, although they are fundamentally different.

What they have in common is to have a similar percentage of diseases. They also cause respiratory illnesses that present with a wide range of illnesses ranging from asymptomatic to mild symptoms to severe illness and death. Then, the spread of these two viruses is due to droplet contact and fomites.

From WHO records, there are four differences between COVID-19 and influenza. First, COVID-19 is as contagious as influenza, but not as effective as influenza. People infected with influenza who are not already sick can become infected with the virus. But people who are infected with COVID-19 are not. There are times when victims of COVID-19 also do not show striking symptoms such as influenza.

Second, COVID-19 causes more severe illness than seasonal influenza. Some people around the world already have immunity to influenza, but not yet with COVID-19.

Third, vaccines and seasonal flu drugs have been found, but vaccines and corona drugs have not been found. Also, the fourth difference is that the world has not talked about overcoming seasonal flu, but is preparing itself against COVID-19. Health authorities in various countries do not track flu transmission, whereas for COVID-19 they do so to prevent transmission.

Illustration (Pixabay)

Knowing about influenza, this virus has caused tens of millions of deaths so far. Determining the world's first pandemic is difficult given the lack of accurate and consistent records. But epidemiologists generally agree that the first influenza pandemic existed in 1580.

The 1580 flu pandemic started in Asia during the summer, then spread to Africa and Europe. Within six months, influenza had spread from southern Europe to northern Europe. After that, the flu reached America. The actual number of victims is unknown, but 8,000 of the deaths occurred in Rome alone.

In Europe, during the Middle Ages, many reports came in from various countries describing an epidemic of respiratory tract infections that resembled an influenza pandemic. However, it is impossible to confirm that this epidemic was caused by influenza. In the 20th century, three influenza pandemics have occurred, including the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

Launching History, nearly 150 years later, another influenza pandemic emerged. The pandemic began in 1729 in Russia and spread across Europe in 6 months and around the world in three years. King Louis XV was reportedly infected with the flu.

About 40 years later, in 1781, the flu pandemic struck again. The pandemic first appeared in China, spread to Russia, and then covered Europe and North America for a year. At its peak, the pandemic hit 30,000 people every day in St. Petersburg. Petersburg and affects two thirds of the population in Rome.

The 1830-1833 flu pandemic started in China, then spread by ships to the Philippines, India and Indonesia. After that it crosses Russia and Europe, which have experienced two pandemics.

Manufacturing of Flu Vaccines

Quoted from the journal National Center for Biotechnology Information, during the 1918-1919 pandemic, some scientists began to suspect that bacteria were not the main agent of influenza. One of them is a scientist named Richard Edwin Shope, who researched swine flu in 1920. However, it was not until 1932-1933 that British scientists named Wilson Smith, Christopher Andrewes, and Patrick Laidlaw, worked at the Medical Research Council on Mill Hill.

Several years later, American virologists and epidemiologists named Thomas Francis, Jr. and Smith were able to transmit the virus to mice for further research.

Then, in 1935, Frank Macfarlane Burnet and Wilson Smith independently discovered that the flu virus could be grown on the membrane of chicken embryos and in 1936 for the first time antibodies could be neutralized from humans isolated due to influenza. The first clinical trials of an influenza vaccine were carried out in the mid-1930s.

Influenza virus (Photo: commons wikimedia)

Given the high death toll of WWI soldiers from flu, the US military was very interested in the flu vaccine. During World War II, US soldiers were part of field tests of the safety and efficacy of a new vaccine.

But during these 1942-1945 tests, scientists discovered influenza type B, which requires a new vaccine that protects against the H1N1 and influenza B viruses.

After the Asian flu pandemic emerged in 1957, a new vaccine to protect against the H2N2 flu was developed. WHO is monitoring the types of influenza viruses that have plagued various countries to determine which flu vaccines are needed in the coming season.

In the hundred years since influenza viruses have been successfully researched, influenza vaccine preparations have continued to evolve to ensure effective protection, while maintaining the vaccine's safety and effectiveness profile.