1918 Flu To H1N1 : Pandemics India Has Dealt With Before Coronavirus

1918 Flu To H1N1 : Pandemics India Has Dealt With Before Coronavirus
(L) The Print ; Bloomberg Quint (R)

Originating in China, the coronavirus epidemic has expanded to epic proportions in India. The states of Maharashtra, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka and Gujarat have been affected the most. The outbreak has been declared an epidemic in these states, where the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 has been invoked and educational institutions and commercial establishments have been shut down. Tourist visas have also been suspended by the Ministry of Public Health and Family Welfare as a preventive measure. However, India is not new to such pandemics, and has seen many of these in the recent past. Here is a list of such pandemics that had broken out in India before the coronavirus outbreak:

I. The 1918 influenza pandemic, also known as the Spanish flu was a deadly influenza pandemic that infected 500 million people around the world. It resulted in a higher than average mortality rate for young adults. Mahatma Gandhi, the chief architect of India’s Independence, was one of the millions who contracted the Spanish flu. When the pandemic struck India, the medical infrastructure in the country was in shambles. The Spanish flu caused widespread suffering and disrupted the economy and infrastructure of the nation. It was an era before antibiotics and vaccines. Penicillin, the first true antibiotic was invented 10 years after the outbreak of the Spanish flu.

II. Over 15,000 people contracted and died from the smallpox outbreak in India in 1974. The states affected mostly include Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal. Many died and many others were disfigured or blinded by the infection. By January 1975, an operation was started aimed at containing the last cases of smallpox, called “Target Zero”, with the identification of the last smallpox patient in India occurring on May 24, 1975. By 1980, smallpox was certified as being eradicated from the world by the WHO’s smallpox eradication programme.

III. An international public health emergency was declared by the government of India due to the outbreak of the bubonic and pneumonic plague in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and New Delhi in 1994. The plague had first started in Surat, a city in Gujarat, after which it spread to other places. It had triggered the biggest post-Independence migration of people in India, with around 300,000 people leaving Surat in 2 days. Although the plague only lasted a little over two weeks, it caused widespread panic. Tourism was negatively affected, flights to India were cancelled, and some planes from India were fumigated at airports The outbreak had severe economic, social, and political impacts in the country. One of India’s major markets (agricultural exports), was jeopardized by a decision by the United Arab Emirates to suspend all cargo transshipment from India. The incident also resulted in the loss of investor confidence. On 8 August 2010 the Indian government reported there had been 1833 deaths from swine flu in the country. On 18 October 2010 a biotechnology firm announced the launch of India’s first indigenously developed cell culture H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine under the brand name HNVAC.

IV. The epicenter of the Hepatitis B outbreak of 2009 was the Modasa taluka in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat. Within a few weeks, nearly 240 people were reported to have been affected by Hepatitis B and over 70 succumbed to the disease. the use of recycled and unsterilized syringes and injection needles have been found out as the main culprits behind the transmission of the disease. As a precautionary gesture, the Government of Gujarat started a mass immunization drive under strict medical supervision in Modasa, which set up 60 booths in Modasa and nearby cities. 224 medical teams, including some from All India Institute of Medical Sciences and National Institute of Virology had also set up camps in Modasa.

V. The 2014 Odisha jaundice outbreak refers to an outbreak of mainly Hepatitis E and Hepatitis A which began in the town of Sambalpur in Odisha. The cause of the outbreak was suspected to be the contamination to drinking water supplied by the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED). By 12 February 2015, responding to a Public Interest Litigation filed by a Corporator of Cuttack Municipal Corporation, Giribala Behera, the Odisha High Court directed the state government to form a high level committee to check the epidemic. By 16 February 2015, the state had declared the districts Sambalpur, Bolangir, Cuttack, Khurda, and Jajpur as jaundice affected. By now Sambalpur had reported 2,945 and Cuttack had reported 116 cases, with there being total 3,966 cases from the state. The official death toll was 36 but unofficially it was estimated to be 50. A separate ward was set up in Shri Ramchandra Bhanj Medical College, Cuttack to treat the victims.

VI. 2015 Indian swine flu outbreak refers to an outbreak of the H1N1 virus in India, during early 2015. The states of Gujarat and Rajasthan were the worst affected. States like Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Telengana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were also affected.

VII. The outbreak of the Nipah virus in Kerala in 2018 was localized in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts. It claimed 17 lives. The origin of the Nipah virus can be traced back to the fruit bats in the area. A new case of a 23-year-old student was detected again on 4 June 2019 in Kochi. This is the fourth occurrence reported in India, with previous ones having occurred in 2001 (45 deaths) and 2007 (5 deaths). Over 300 people were put under observation, but no further case was reported.

VIII. The Bombay plague was a bubonic plague epidemic that struck the city of Mumbai in the late 1890s. Very little was known about the disease at that time. It was said to be transmitted by a bacteria, but it was not known where it emanated from. It was said to be transmitted by bacteria, but it was not known where it emanated from. Many people fled from Bombay at this time, and in the census of 1901, the population had actually fallen to 780,000.

“The outbreak of plague in Bombay in 1896 throws up a complex narrative of class, caste, community, tradition, ignorance and prejudice. The steps that the British government took to control the epidemic such as forcible examination, isolation and quarantine, caused intense anger among the citizens, many of whom fled to their villages to get away as much from the cure as the disease. This is not the place to enter into that labyrinth of cause and effect. What concerns us here is that Shivaji Park owes its birth, at least partly if not wholly, to the plague epidemic of 1896-97.”

— From "Room 000: Narratives of the Bombay Plague", Kalpish Ratna

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