A few days ago I wrote about some research I’d done about pandemics. At the same time, I also learned about disease transmission. Those flu pandemics that hit fast and burned out after several months were all airborne pathogens (diseases). We’re all familiar with airborne disease – it’s why we cover our noses when we sneeze or our mouths when we cough. The disease spreads into the air through our coughing and sneezing and then other people breathe it in and are infected.
I recently did a little research into pandemics and pathogens for a story I’m writing. I discovered some very interesting stuff, like – there were more pandemics in the 1900′s than I knew about. I knew there was one in 1918, but apparently there were two smaller flu pandemics as well, in 1957-8 and 1968-9. They were bad enough that 70,000 died in America in the first one and 34,000 in the second. That’s not as many as the 1918 flu (675,000 dead in the U.S., including at least one of my great-grandparents), but it’s still a lot of people. I’m yet again amazed by what we *don’t* learn in school. This other site talks about even more epidemics in the 1960′s that were apparently not as bad, but significant enough to be mentioned.
City of Bones
by Cassandra Clare
Twice Dead
by Kalayna Price
