Word: influenza
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Like so much else surrounding the storied career of Greece's best-known businessman, Onassis' illness was cloaked in mystery. After he spent a day in the Paris hospital, all his physician would say was that the patient "has been shaken by very heavy influenza...
...comparison with the great influenza epidemics, the plague that hit Minnesota recently was a trivial affair. One hundred and twenty-five people were stricken with nausea and diarrhea after eating in a local restaurant. No one died in the outbreak, but about 50 were sufficiently sick to consult physicians, eleven were afflicted seriously enough to require hospitalization, and many were bedridden for one or more days. Normally, such an outbreak, which was traced to Salmonella bacteria, receives little attention from health authorities...
Ever since it made its notorious globe-girdling trip in 1918, influenza has remained the most peripatetic of plagues. A 1968 epidemic afflicted more than 30 million in the U.S. alone; similar, though considerably less serious outbreaks of the disease erupted in 1972 and 1973. Now the flu is once again making the grand tour. The disease, which causes the all too familiar headache, upset stomach, coughing and fever, has struck hard in Eastern Europe and turned up in the western part of the Continent. It has also gained a foothold in the U.S., where, although...
Thus far, at least, the 1974-75 flu has claimed few lives. The U.S. Public Health Service's Center for Disease Control in Atlanta reports that a check of 121 cities reveals that influenza has caused only 578 excess deaths* so far this season, mostly from complications. This year's total is far below the 2,200 fatalities attributed to the 1972-73 outbreak. But the CDC still urges caution...
...epidemic spread as fast as ships could carry infected passengers round the world. The highest mortality occurred in India, where 12.5 million people died. Very few places remained influenza-free because of fanatically enforced quarantine regulations. Among them were the South Atlantic island of St. Helena, Napoleon's last home, and a U.S. naval training station in San Francisco Bay, where drinking fountains were sterilized hourly with blowtorches. Nearly everywhere else life for the survivors changed radically. Moviehouses, restaurants and concert halls were ordered shut. Courting became medically dangerous. A sort of mass purdah prevailed as millions learned...