Perspective
Like People, Diseases Travel Fast These Days
Since the 1918 flu pandemic that wiped out about five percent of the world’s population there have been strides toward eradicating most communicable diseases, yet the vulnerability of certain parts of the world affects everyone. This, the writers say, must be addressed.
On the 100th anniversary of the 1918 flu pandemic that killed 50 to 100 million people, the world still suffers some of the conditions that made the pandemic possible, even after a century of progress in medicine and public health.
In 1918 only one in ten people lived in cities, and the first transatlantic flight was still five years away. Yet issues like poor hygiene in hospitals, and undernourishment caused the flu to spread rapidly, and worldwide, killing approximately five percent of the global population. Today’s public health, immunization, and surveillance systems are stronger, but major gaps persist around the globe, and the world is both more urban and more interconnected than ever before.