What saved the USSR from the Hong Kong flu epidemic 50 years ago

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The pandemic that struck the world in 1968 and raged for three years was the third global outbreak of the influenza virus. According to various estimates, from one to four million people died from the new disease during that period. There were so many dead in West Berlin that the corpses were piled in the tunnels of inactive subway stations, but there was no mass hype in the press. The Soviet Union managed to avoid a deadly epidemic.

The first victim of the new virus was an elderly crab trader from Hong Kong. She became ill on 13 July 1968 and died a week later. A month later, all hospitals in the English colony were overcrowded - about half a million people were infected. The London Virus Center has confirmed that it is a new type of influenza (H3N2 influenza A strain). Most likely, it arose, mutating from a virus of some small livestock (like a pig), but it was not possible to establish this for sure.

The mortality rate from the Hong Kong flu was not very high - about 0.5% of cases died, but the infectiousness of the disease was incredible. It was possible to catch a sore not only by airborne droplets, but also through sweat, simply by touching a sick person. The course of the disease was extremely difficult - dry cough (reaching blood), high fever, numerous complications. Symptoms appeared within a day or two after infection, but they could hide for two weeks. That pandemic, like the modern one, put the elderly at risk.

By the end of August, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines were infected with the new virus. A bloody war was just unfolding in Vietnam, so the further path of the virus was predetermined. In September, the disease hit the United States, where the number of deaths from this pandemic was more than thirty thousand people (according to some estimates, up to one hundred thousand). For comparison, the number of Americans who died during the fighting in Vietnam in the same 1968, which is considered the bloodiest year, is estimated at 16 thousand.

The disciplined Japan suffered the least from the new virus: the residents polls put on masks and strictly observed the recommended sanitary standards (they constantly washed their hands). As a result, a massive epidemic was avoided there, but Europe suffered very badly. It should be noted that the data of those years for the dead and infected are not very accurate. However, it is believed that in France in December 1968, in some areas, half of the population fell ill. This even caused a temporary shutdown of factories - there was simply not enough labor. But the worst was for Germany. In total, about 60 thousand people died in the Eastern and Western parts of the country. In West Berlin, morgues soon ceased to handle, and inactive metro stations began to be used to store the bodies of the dead (on those lines that were blocked by the GDR during the construction of the Berlin Wall). Garbage collectors had to be involved in the funeral of the victims of the epidemic, since there were not enough gravediggers.

It is surprising that the press of those times did not stir up the hype about the disease, which claimed thousands of lives. Probably, this was due to the general attitude towards this issue. Then it was believed that any cough can be cured if you wrap yourself up warmly and drink a lot. The newest achievement of medicine - antibiotics - instilled confidence that modern science is able to cope with any disease, because the achievements of scientific and technological progress have already allowed people to even fly into space. Most people believed that doctors had everything under control. And then there were enough problems in the world that were provided by the catchy headlines: the Vietnam war, the student revolution in Europe and the cultural one in China, the Cold War and the Soviet threat. Against the background of all this, the flu epidemic did not seem to be such a significant event, therefore, there was no massive fear and any strict quarantine measures anywhere.

After the first wave, the Hong Kong flu returned for two more seasons. In the UK, Japan and Australia, relapses of the pandemic have resulted in many more casualties. Later, the majority of the world's population developed immunity to the H3N2 strain, and now it periodically appears as a seasonal disease that does not lead to such catastrophic consequences.

The Soviet Union escaped the pandemic thanks to the Iron Curtain. This virus is believed to have spread so quickly around the world for the first time thanks to airplanes. Ties between countries in the middle of the 20th century were quite close, but the USSR became an exception (in this case, a happy one). Soviet citizens had so few contacts abroad that small quarantine measures helped to significantly slow down the penetration of the Hong Kong flu into our country. Of course, in the end it got to us, but it happened after the virus mutated and weakened, at the end of the global pandemic.

In the USSR, a special order was issued: employees of restaurants, hotels and other institutions working with foreign citizens (tourists or embassy workers) should wear surgical masks on their faces and wash their hands with soap and water. In the future, we recognized two waves of the epidemic - in 1968 and 1070, but the incidence rate did not exceed the average. The doctors were ready for the third wave of H3N2 - they vaccinated the population, so we can say that the epidemic was avoided in the USSR.

The 1968 pandemic taught people a lot. So, it was after her that the age "65+" began to be considered a risk group for viral diseases, large countries were forced to launch mass production of influenza vaccines, and in some countries (for example, in France), vaccination of pensioners began to be paid for by the state. In addition, humanity then for the first time felt that close economic and cultural ties between countries can be not only a blessing, but also a potential source of danger, because this was the first time that an infectious disease spread throughout the world in just a matter of weeks.

Mass diseases have afflicted humanity for thousands of years. People's unrest often follows disease. So, in 1771 Muscovites raised a "Plague Riot" and killed Archbishop Ambrose.