Haarlem oil, the lethal weapon to prevent and fight against the flu
Until the 6th Century
All epidemics were called "plagues", which were flu or epidemics. To curb the bad, Pope Gregory organized a procession with an image of the Virgin Mary. Miracle that worked!
Later in the 14th Century
After the survival of the second great epidemic plague, the belief was still in the holiness however, the epidemic killed 30 million individuals in five years, which is one-third of the population of Europe.
In the 19th Century
The course changed in Paris, where a cholera epidemic touched Europe and hit strongly in the upper classes of society. The epidemic reinforced the hygienic movement and a great number of decontamination jobs were undertaken. The call to God was not enough and had to be also made to town planners and doctors. Following this, thanks to Pasteur, contagiousness had been proven, vaccinations became apparent and the danger of the epidemics seemed isolated.
The arrival of the 20th Century
In 1918, the world knew a catastrophic episode with the Spanish flu (part of China, but named Spanish in France, as they believed that it was brought back in canned food by the soldiers). The flu took 20 to 40 million lives, more than world conflicts have accomplished. The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, Despite of medicine progress a little later, two other epidemics, the flu in 1957 (the Asiatic flu: 4 million deaths) and in 1968 (the Hong Kong flu: 2 million deaths). Since twenty-five years, the circulating viruses are descendants of the Hong Kong virus. These three epidemics of flu of the 20th century have one common point: their aviary origin and their birth in the Extreme Orient, where the dense population lives in direct contact with animals.
21st Century. This time it is the new bird flu.
Whilst reading or listening to the media, the information about this new flu is wide-spread in many countries. "A planetary medical alert. An illness that we do not know the name but has come from Asia. The death suspects are in Canada and in Vietnam, the illness also suspected in Germany: the scenario is a dream for a medical thriller". This is what we are able to read in science and an internet journal, only available in French and translated for this occasion:
Down cried by a minority, praised by the majority, tamiflu is in a paradoxical position: its status of an anti-bird flu medication has brought fortune to its fabricator.....however, if there were to be a real epidemic of bird flu, the tamiflu would be relegated into oblivion, as soon as possible.
Millions of pages have been written about the risks and consequences of the Bird Flu. We invite you to consult the following sites:
- Pandemic news info
- Medicine Guide about Tamiflu
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