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Spanish flu
It's a pandemic that killed estimated 50 million people worldwide, including 675,000 people in the US. There are more deaths from this epidemic than WW1. It quickly created respiratory problems, and pneumonia, killing many healthy young men and women. Scientists say that the virus crossed from birds to humans. It is the epidemic that killed millions of people, and there isn't a pandemic that killed that much people. -
Discovery of the influenza virus
Christopher Andrewes, Wilson Smith, and Patrick Laidlaw made this discovery of the Influenza virus. There are 3 types of viruses, Type A,B, and C. Type A causes pandemics or worldwide epidemics. It infects humans, animals and birds. Type B affects mammals, but it is less severe than type A. Type C also affects only mammals, but it causes disease rarely. -
Avian flu
There have been 11 outbreaks of the Avian flu in 2 countries (China, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam) and many people died. 2004-2007 Avian flu aka bird flu is a raging problem in asian countries. It is a virus that infects birds to make them ill. It also infects people, if humans come in contact with infected birds. -
Swine influenza aka pig influenza
It's a respiratory disease of pigs caused by a type A influenza virus. The swine virus is also responsible for many pandemics. The swine aka pig influenza is a type of virus that usually infects pigs, as stated by the name. However, there is a new strand of virus that affects humans too. This influenza is known to be a Type A influenza and it's not airborne.