We have vaccines for many viral diseases and we have survived big pandemics, but it's just a matter of time when a new, faster and deadlier virus will come to the daylight.
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In its simplest form, the virus is a capsule that contains genetic material, DNA or RNA, long molecules that carry genetic information. Viruses’ main task is multiplying. However, unlike bacteria, viruses can't survive independently. They need the appropriate host for their reproduction.
When viruses attack the human body they enter cells forcing them to produce substances that they need for reproduction. At the end of that process host cells are destroyed. Once out of their "nests", viruses do not stop at their doorstep. They are moving to conquer new territories. Their home is planet Earth.
A long time ago, back in 162, Marco Aurelio's soldiers brought to Rome rubeola from their "trip" from the Orient, a childhood infective disease potentially life-threatening for citizens of all ages at that time. A century later, smallpox came to Rome brought by an unknown source. However, as the earliest records about smallpox were noted in ancient China, Egypt and India, one of them is to be blamed for, at least as a source.
During the 18th century Europe reported blindness in the third of all smallpox cases. Deep-pitted scars on the faces of those who survived turned to be a smaller problem. Europe gave China rubeola in return and China thanked for gift with flu. Both sides were unfamiliar with new diseases and viruses started to spread blazingly fast leaving dead people all around.
Atlantic Ocean turned to be a pond for viruses. Spanish settlers brought with them rubella, influenza and smallpox. That last reduced Mexican population from 25 million to 3 million in 1520. In Peru, the same enemy defeated powerful Inca Empire reducing the number of inhabitants from 8 million to only one million. But those were unintentional deaths, the result of widening borders and greed in the case of Inca. The first known intentional biological warfare was run by Englishmen who were offering sheets infected by smallpox to Indians.
United States "strikes back" in spring 1918 with a sick pig, causing a disease which will in two years infect 500 million people around the word, killing tens of millions in just one year, taking more lives than plaque in the Middle Age or AIDS in twenty five years.
It was the Spanish flu that caused the worst pandemic in the history of humankind. It all started in Kansas from where the flu started to conquer other continents, first Europe and then, along trade routes, Africa, Asia, Brazil and the South Pacific. The end of the First World War wasn't on the horizon yet, but along its way the flu infected so many soldiers on both sides that it probably contributed to the earlier ending of the war.
An interesting story, many would say. Luckily for us now we have vaccines for all those diseases and such pandemics are behind us not to return ever again. But are they?
Viruses are very resistant and unpredictable creatures. In the case of the Spanish flu the symptoms were so unusual that influenza was initially misdiagnosed as dengue and even cholera. Variola virus which causes Variola major, the most severe form of smallpox, is still alive in laboratories, well-preserved to be used for vaccines if the new pandemic occurs.
Mortality of the most dangerous Ebola-Zaire biotype rates 90 percent. Chicken flu and swine flu are the newest examples of viruses that mutated and travelled around the world as passengers in economy class. It is just a matter of time when they will buy a business class ticket. ■