10 months ago
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"Some historians have said the flu has been the biggest disease since AIDS came along," says Adams.
He says the influenza name dates back to the 1500s from two Italian men.
He says they believed the "flu was due to the influence of the planets, so in other words the way the planets were aligned would determine what would be the flu outbreak. So 'influenza' means influence."
Adams is paying close attention to the current swine flu as he says the outbreak parallels the 1918 Spanish flu.
"It started in March in Kansas," says Adams.
He says it spread to nearly every part of the world, killing possibly 100 million people. He also studied the Russian flu of the 1890s. Victims had no idea how it was spreading.
"They said decaying bodies were sending particles in the air," says Adams.
Back then they thought the flu was a bacteria and not a virus, so of course treatments failed.
Treatments included injecting mercury into your veins and substances like acid to cleanse the interior of your body. It wasn't until the 1930s that doctors discovered it's a virus. In 1976, the U.S. government conducted massive swine flu vaccinations.
"What happened was people developed Guillain-Barre syndrome and believed it was due to this vaccine," says Adams.
He says the cause of that nervous system disorder was never proven. All these different epidemics, pandemics, and outbreaks show there is no trend showing when the flu is expected to hit us again.
"Historical lightning doesn't strike twice," says Adams.
Adams says historically, restricting travel doesn't stop flu outbreaks either. Australia did that for the Spanish Flu and it still made it there, just one year later.
THV's Pam Baccam will have the story on todaysthv.com and the THV 10:00 Difference.
