WHAT IS WORSE: THE CORONAVIRUS OR THE FLU?

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Each year, from around October through May, international health coverage is primarily focused on the flu—and with good reason. The flu is notoriously infectious and can cause up to 45 million illnesses each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But this year, the new coronavirus outbreak (aka, COVID-19) is dominating the headlines, causing more than illnesses in just over two months.

As of March 26^th   2020, more than 800 million people in 200 countries and territories around the world have contracted COVID-19, and nearly 39,000 have died. In the US, as many as 161,000 cases have been confirmed, and more than 3,000 people have died

The  Flu season in the United States , alone which runs from October through May, claims tens of thousands of lives every year. During this current season, CDC estimates that, as of mid-March, between 29,000 and 59,000 have died due to influenza illnesses. Add to that the misery of hundreds of thousands of flu-related hospitalizations and millions of medical visits for flu symptoms during this season.

The Spanish flu (also known as the 1918 flu pandemic was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic. Lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, which infected 500 million people—about a quarter of the world's population at the time. The death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million^[ to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history

Here is an amazing fact to consider. If our grandparents and our parents who were alive in 1918 and who had died from that pandemic, none of us would have been born.  

The historical events from 1918 to today would be entirely different.

Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill the very young and the very old, with a higher survival rate for those in between, but the Spanish flu pandemic resulted in a higher than expected mortality rate for young adults. Scientists offer several possible explanations for the high mortality rate of the 1918 influenza pandemic. Some analyses have shown the virus to be particularly deadly because it triggers a cytokine storm, which ravages the stronger immune system of young adults. In contrast, a 2007 analysis of medical journals from the period of the pandemic found that the viral infection was no more aggressive than the previous influenza strains. Instead, malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps and hospitals, and the poor hygiene promoted this particular bacterial superinfection. This superinfection killed most of the victims, typically after a somewhat prolonged period of dying. Those problems are not prevalent in this era.

The Spanish flu was the first of two pandemics caused by the H1N1 influenza virus.  The second was the swine flu in 2009.

The 2009 flu pandemic or swine flu was an influenza pandemic that lasted from early 2009 to late 2010, and the second of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus (the first of them being the 1918-20 Spanish flu pandemic), albeit in a new version. First described in April 2009, the virus appeared to be a new strain of the flu.

SARS, ( severe acute respiratory syndrome ) is the disease caused by SARS-CoV. It causes an often severe illness and is marked initially by systemic symptoms of muscle pain, headache, and fever, followed in 2–14 days by the onset of respiratory symptoms,^[10] mainly cough, dyspnea, and pneumonia. Another common finding in SARS patients is a decrease in the number of lymphocytes circulating in the blood.

On THE 12 April 2003, scientists working at the Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre in Vancouver finished mapping the genetic sequence of a coronavirus believed to be linked to SARS. The team was led by Marco Marra and worked in collaboration with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, using samples from infected patients in Toronto. The map, hailed by the WHO as an important step forward in fighting SARS, is shared with scientists worldwide via the GSC website (see below). Donald Low of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto described the discovery as having been made with "unprecedented speed".^[13] The sequence of the SARS coronavirus has since been confirmed by other independent groups

In the SARS outbreak of 2003, about 9% of patients with confirmed SARS-Co. infection died. The mortality rate was much higher for those over 60 years old, with mortality rates approaching 50% for this subset of patients.

During November 2002 through July 2003, a total of 900 people worldwide became sick with severe acute respiratory syndrome that was accompanied by either pneumonia or respiratory distress syndrome.

Many of the deaths of the men working on the building of the Panama Canal had been caused by yellow fever and malaria diseases that the medical community at the time believed were caused by bad air and dirty conditions. However, by the early twentieth  century, medical experts better understood the role of mosquitoes as carriers for these diseases, allowing them to significantly reduce the number of deaths among canal workers, thanks to a host of sanitation measures that included draining areas with standing water, removing possible insect breeding grounds and installing window screens in buildings.

In 2018, an estimated 405,000 people died of malaria—most were young children in sub-Saharan Africa. Within the last decade, increasing numbers of scientists using resources have rapidly increased malaria control efforts. This scale-up of interventions has saved millions  of lives globally and have cut malaria mortality by 25% from 2010 to 2016 , leading to hopes and plans for elimination and ultimately eradication. CDC brings its technical expertise to support these efforts with its collaborative work in many malaria-endemic countries and regions.

The Ebola virus disease or simply called Ebola, is a viral haemorrhagic fever of humans and other primates caused by ebolaviruses.^[1] Signs and symptoms typically start between two days and three weeks after contracting the virus with a fever, sore throat. muscular pain including painful headaches,   Vomiting,  diarrhea  and a rash usually follows along with decreased function of the liver and kidneys.  At this time, some people begin to bleed both internally and externally. The disease has a high risk of death, killing 25% to 90% of those infected, with an average of about 50%.^[1] This is often due to low blood pressure from fluid loss, and typically follows 6 to 16 days after symptoms appear.  

The virus spreads through direct contact with body fluids, such as blood from infected humans or other animals. ^The  spread of this disease may also occur from contact with items recently contaminated with bodily fluids. 

At least 11,079 people had died from the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa  by the year,  2015 according to the World Health Organization

Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by one of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980.^[1 The risk of death following contracting the disease was about 30%, with higher rates among babies. Often those who survived had extensive scarring of their skin, and some were left blind.

I and millions of other people around the world were immunized against the disease. It was done by scratching an infected needle across the skin of one of our upper arms. The small patch where it shows is  still wrinkled as a result of the effect of the irus. Many people who lived looked hideous as if their skin all over their bodies was  burned in a fire.

An estimated 300 million people died from smallpox in the 20^th century alone. This virulent disease, which kills a third of those it infects, is known to have co-existed with human beings for thousands of years.  Fortunately  it has been completely  eradicated.

Perhaps someday in the future, all those horrible  diseases will be completely  eradicated. Alas, we who are alive today will not be alive when those great moments  ocurin the future.

The Spanish Flu in 1918, killed as many

It is obvos that the flu virus is worse that the Coronavirus.