Influenza pandemics throughout history
The influenza virus has been around for centuries. It is a contagious viral infection affecting the respiratory system with symptoms including a fever, cough, headaches, muscle aches and fatigue. The most severe pandemic of recent times was the Spanish flu of 1918 which spread rapidly, killing millions of people.
Here we take a look at various outbreaks throughout the years and the impact it had on society.
Extract from The Sun, Sept. 21, 1918. (AP Corporate Archive)
Dr. Francis D. Galbraith, ship's surgeon aboard the liner President Cleveland, checks the Eugene Reynolds family of Chicago for any sign of the Asiatic flu before they disembark, June 9, 1957, in San Francisco. The liner, with 500 passengers aboard, was delayed two hours in docking while the U.S. Public Health Service officials interviewed those who have recovered from the malady while aboard the ship (AP Photo)
Dr. Morris Greenberg of New York checks the temperature of Gloria Matiello, 16, of Italy, one of the exchange students arriving in New York, Aug. 13, 1957, aboard the liner Arosa Sky. Watching is Barbro Linnios from Sweden who is going to Minneapolis. Miss Matiello is going to Redwood, Minn. Among the liner's 847 passengers, 50 were suffering from influenza on arrival. (AP Photo/Anthony Camerano)
Lt. Frank C. Morrison, doctor on the destroyer Huntington, half of whose crew have been stricken with Asiatic flu, checks the temperatures of crewmen G.R. McKay, center, and M. Kosmides before they go ashore on liberty in Norfolk, Va., Aug. 23, 1957. One degree of fever keeps a man aboard. (AP Photo/HDV)
The first four of more than 500 police, firemen and deputy sheriffs in St. Joseph County to receive Asian flu vaccine bare their arms as Dr. William J. Stogdill injects the serum in South Bend, Ind., Aug. 30, 1957. From left to right: Dr. Stogdill; Patrolman Robert B. Bejma; Deputy George H. Fern; and Fire Captain Robert Rzepka (AP Photo/DM)
Members of a West Germany Navy vessel hand over vaccine to members of the U.S. transport General Patch, July 17, 1957, for 134 persons sick with the Asiatic flu. The 9,200-ton ship, which arrived from New York, is anchored 20 miles off Bremerhaven, West Germany, after being quarantined for an outbreak of the flu among its 1,256 passengers and crew. (AP Photo/Henry Brueggemann)
Sister M. Assumpta, St. Mary's Hospital administrator, sets a good example for other personnel as she receives the first shot of Asian flu vaccine given at the hospital by Dr. Robert C. Murphy, Sept. 4, 1957, in Quincy, Illinois. (AP Photo)
Danish naval personnel suffering from Asian flu occupy beds in temporary sick quarters set up in a gymnasium in Copenhagen's navy shipyard to handle the large number of patients, Oct. 12, 1957. Reports from various Danish military establishments indicated that between 15 and 25 percent of the men were down with the flu. (AP Photo)
Only three of the 31 members of a seventh grade class at Grebey Junior High School in Hazleton, Pa., were present for classes, Oct. 16, 1957. (AP Photo)
Laboratory workers conduct a potency test, one of a series required to test and produce vaccines for the Asiatic flu, in Greenfield, Ind., Aug. 21, 1957. Other tests are made for sterility, safety and innocuity during the sixty days it takes to make the vaccine. Six companies are manufacturing the vaccine at peak capacity to meet the threat of an Asiatic flu epidemic in the U.S. this fall. (AP Photo)
Dr. Evant Aalbork and nurse Marie Weekly protect themselves by wearing masks as they examine a flu patient in Central Receiving Hospital in Los Angeles, Feb. 17, 1966. A widespread outbreak of Asian flu raged into the second day of proportions in Los Angeles and Southern California. Health officials said, however, there was no increase in the normal death rate as there was in the worldwide attack of Asian flu in 1957. Patient is unidentified to protect his privacy. (AP Photo/Harold Filan)
Bunny girls surround Dr Michael Steele of The Crookes Laboratories of Basingstoke, Hampshire, as he gives them an influenza vaccination at the Playboy Club in Park Lane, London, on Sept. 9, 1966. The vaccine was administered with a hypospray gun, which is painless in use and leaves no mark after injection. (AP Photo/Bob Dear)
Staff of the London store Selfridges are seen lining up for an anti-flu vaccination on Oct. 20, 1966, from a hypospray gun, the latest method of painless injection which leaves no mark. 1400 of the staff have agreed to the vaccinations suggested by the management in an attempt to cut losses in time and money from staff absences caused by influenza. (AP Photo/Frank Leonard Tewkesbury)
With Hong Kong flu at near epidemic proportions in many parts of the country, Maggie Wilson, a dietary worker in Philadelphia’s Presbyterian-University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia on Dec. 6, 1968, wears mask and disposable gloves as she prepares food in the hospital. This step was only one taken by area hospitals to combat the spread of flu. Another move called for banning of all visitors to hospitals. (AP Photo/WGI)
An office worker wearing an anti-flu mask sits at her type-writer in London, on January 1, 1970. A flu epidemic has spread all over Great Britain and hospitals have declared a red emergency. (AP Photo/Laurence Harris)
William J Sharman, worker at a stall at Smithfield meat market, London, wears an anti-flu mask while handling turkey at the market, on January 1, 1970. A flu epidemic has spread all over Great Britain and hospitals have declared a red emergency. (AP Photo/Laurence Harris)
Professor Claude Hannoun shows the flu vaccine he and his team developed, on February 7, 1973 at Paris' Pasteur Institute. The general flu vaccine resulted from a process in which forms of flu virus yet to come were artificially created in the laboratory. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
The swine flu vaccine lies covered on a table at Pittsburgh's Southside clinic on Oct. 12, 1976, after health officials closed this and all other area clinics administering the vaccine after three elderly people died on Monday hours after receiving the flu shots at the Southside clinic. (AP Photo/MK)
Dr. Leonard Bachman, Pennsylvania State Secretary of Health, stands by a swine flu vaccine chart during a news conference in the State Capitol at Harrisburg, Penn., Sept. 28, 1976. Dr. Bachman announced the free swine flu vaccine will be administered first to the elderly starting Oct. 8. (AP Photo/Paul Vathis)
Thousands queue for a flu shot at Macon's Westgate Mall on Oct. 30, 1976, as the city starts its first day of the swine flu vaccination program. Over 1,000 people came in the opening hour of the program. This view shows the end of the line which stretches half the mall's length. (AP Photo)
Mrs. Myra Snylyk gives military veteran Frank Gorski a shot of swine flu vaccine at the veterans hospital in Los Angeles on Friday, Oct. 1, 1976. In the background is Mrs. Ann Petrovich, also a nurse. It was the first day of administering the vaccine in many areas of the country. (AP Photo/JLR)
U.S. President Gerald Ford rolls up his sleeve and receives a swine flu injection from White House physician, Dr. William Lukash, Oct. 14, 1976. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi)