Getting Technical
VIRAL PANDEMICS
PRIOR TO COVID-19
By Charles Nicolson
CHARLES NICOLSON
Charles Nicolson has a physics and chemistry degree from Natal University which he subsequently put to good use
by applying speciality chemicals in mining and industrial processes where water is a major factor. This created an
enduring interest in water technology, a passion that expanded to the HVAC industry in 1984 when he joined BHT
Water Treatment. Since then, water technology in HVAC water circuits has continued to be an abiding interest.
Examples of diseases caused by viruses in humans include smallpox, the
common cold, various types of influenza, measles, mumps, hepatitis, Ebola,
poliomyelitis, HIV(AIDS), SARS, and others.
To-date, none of these have been completely eradicated, although
specific vaccines and treatments have been developed which
greatly diminish the severity of infections which, in turn, reduce
symptoms and disease-related damages accordingly.
Viral diseases infecting humans tend to become epidemic
(widespread) and then expand further becoming pandemic
(world-wide).
The most devastating, although thankfully short-lived lethal
pandemic in modern times, was the 1918/19 flu pandemic also
known as The Spanish Flu. This was a particularly deadly influenza
pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus.
Figure 1: Electron micrograph of a re-created 1918 influenza virus.
The origin of the name ‘Spanish Flu’ comes from when it spread
out from France into Spain in November 1918 during the final
stages of World War 1. Spain was not involved in the war, having
remained neutral, Spanish newspapers were therefore not
under censorship and were able to report on one of the deadliest
pandemics in human history.
The first wave was a typical flu epidemic. Those most at risk were
the infirm and elderly, while younger, healthier people mostly
recovered. When a second wave began, the virus had mutated to
a much more deadly form. October 1918 was the month having
the highest fatality rate of the entire pandemic occurring during
a period when the flu killed more people in 24 weeks than HIV/
AIDS killed in 24 years.
By the time a third wave started during 1919, the virus had
become a pandemic reaching as far south as Australia. At the
beginning of 1920 a more minor fourth wave occurred but only in
isolated areas around the world where mortality rates were very
low. The overall death toll is estimated to have been in the range
of 17 million to 50 million, although possibly as high as 100 million,
making it one of the deadliest pandemics in recorded human history.
During the relatively short three-to-four year period of the
Spanish Flu, another viral disease which had begun at least a
thousand years earlier, was continuing a slower but inexorable
spreading into a pandemic which afflicted virtually every corner of
the earth directly or indirectly – poliomyelitis.
Many people, the writer included, have vivid personal memories
of poliomyelitis in South Africa during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Memories of injections every 4 hours, day and night comprising
substantial quantities of yellow liquid penicillin – not pleasant
memories, but overladen with gratitude for dedicated people like
Jonas Salk whose name will be always remembered for pioneering and
developing the first successful anti-polio vaccine.
Although no major polio epidemics were recorded before the
20th century, the disease has caused paralysis and death for much
of human history. It was only in the 1900s that epidemics began to
occur in Europe followed by increasingly widespread epidemics in
the US. By 1910, polio epidemics became regular events throughout
www.hvacronline.co.za RACA Journal I October 2020 35