User:Alex Blokha/HK Flu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hong Kong flu (also known as 1968 flu pandemic[1]) was a flu pandemic whose outbreak in 1968 and 1969 killed an estimated one million people all over the world.[2][3][4] It was caused by an H3N2 strain of the influenza A virus, descended from H2N2 through antigenic shift, a genetic process in which genes from multiple subtypes reassorted to form a new virus.
The first record of the outbreak in Hong Kong appeared on 13 July 1968. By the end of July 1968, extensive outbreaks were reported in Vietnam and Singapore. Despite the lethality of the 1957 Asian Flu in China, little improvement had been made regarding the handling of such epidemics. The Times newspaper was the first source to sound alarm regarding this new possible pandemic. There is a possibility that this outbreak actually began in mainland China before spreading to Hong Kong, but this is unconfirmed.[5]
By September 1968, the flu reached India, the Philippines, northern Australia, and Europe. That same month, the virus entered California from returning Vietnam War troops but did not become widespread in the United States until December 1968. It would reach Japan, Africa, and South America by 1969.[6] The outbreak in Hong Kong, where population density is greater than 6,000 people per square kilometre, reached maximum intensity in two weeks, lasting six months in total from July to December 1968. However, worldwide deaths from this virus peaked much later, in December 1968 and January 1969. By that time, public health warnings[7] and virus descriptions[8] were issued in the scientific and medical journals.
In comparison to other pandemics, the Hong Kong flu yielded a low death rate. [6]
This pandemic struck in two waves with the second wave being deadlier than the first in most places.[9]
The same virus returned the following years: a year later, in late 1969 and early 1970, and in 1972. The total worldwide death toll is estimated to have been in the region of one million people.