Essay On Influenza Epidemic

In 1918 an influenza epidemic broke out, and it was no little thing. It was known to kill more people than World War I did. It affected one-fifth of the world, and 28% of Americans. An estimated amount of people that that died from it were about 675,000 people. That’s ten times the number of people that died in World War I! In 1919 the epidemic finally came to an end and all was back to normal, but it took a whole year for it all to fall back into place once again. I did this topic because I know that it’s a common disease, but there are many unknown facts about it. Some of the main topics that I will cover are what it is, how you can obtain it, symptoms, complications that can stem after it, and the preventions. There are three types of influenza: A, B, and C. I will be talking about type B. This virus is caused by a variety of flu

There are two categories: rare and common complications. Luckily there is only one common, and it is bacterial pneumonia or otherwise known as pneumonia. This a disease that can cause fluid to get into the lungs, and then can make it harder to breathe. Now onto the rare complications. One is encephalitis, which is when a person’s brain can become inflamed or irritated. This can turn into serious other complications which are, confusion, fatigue, seizures, becoming unconscious, and possibly even a coma. The second one I found would be myositis. This is when muscles become numb, or inflamed. This can lead to muscle weakness or not being able to walk. This will only last around 1 to 5 days and, impacts mostly children. The last is Reye’s syndrome which is a neurological disease. Neurological means dealing with the nervous system which includes your brain and spinal cord. This can include being nauseous, delirium, vomiting, and confusion. Remember all of those are rare except for the pneumonia, but that’s not too