In the 19th century, the inhabitants of Bukhara, a city of the former Russian Empire, began to get sick and die. The cause was a mysterious respiratory virus that became known as ‘Russian flu’. It didn’t take long for it to spread around the world and overwhelm hospitals. The ‘Russian flu’ was particularly lethal to the elderly.
Some of those infected with this virus said they lost their sense of smell and taste. Among those who recovered from the ‘Russian flu’, persistent exhaustion was reported. After three waves, the ‘Russian flu’ ended a few years later.
+ US records bird flu in turkeys, 1st case in commercial farming since 2020
Given the symptoms and patterns of infection described, some virologists and medical historians have questioned whether the ‘Russian flu’ was a pandemic generated by a coronavirus, like the pandemic the world is currently facing.
The New York Times says that scientists and historians are assiduously investigating and studying the ‘Russian flu’ in the face of parallels with the Covid-19 pandemic, because if it was caused by a coronavirus it could offer clues about the direction this pandemic could take. .
Frank Snowden, a historian at Yale University in the United States, is cautious about the ‘Russian flu’ hypothesis. “There is very little, almost no data” about this pandemic,” he reports.
It is for this reason that some researchers are looking for this data, and are trying to find fragments of lung tissue that have been preserved in museums and medical schools and that may hold the answer to the ‘Russian flu’ mystery.
know more
+ Omicron: Unexpected symptom of infection in children worries medical teams
+ Mercadão de SP vendors threaten customers with fruit blow
+ Video: Mother is attacked on social media for wearing tight clothes to take her son to school
+ Horoscope: check today’s forecast for your sign
+ What is known about fluorone?
+ Trick to squeeze lemons becomes a craze on social media
+ ‘Monster Ichthyosaur’ is discovered in Colombia
+ One twin became vegan, the other ate meat. Check the result
+ See which were the most stolen cars in SP in 2021
+ Expedition identifies giant squid responsible for ship sinking in 2011
+ US Agency warns: never wash raw chicken meat
#Scientists #investigate #Russian #flu #caused #coronavirus