Living with Enza

At the end of the First World War there was a flu pandemic which killed more people than the war. Strangely though it was not remembered as a big event in our history. In Living with Enza: The Forgotten Story of Britain and the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918 Mark Honigsbaum tells of what he has found out about this pandemic.

The disease probably started in the army camps in France during the war, but in Britain it came in three waves, starting in mid 1918. At that time people tended to be more concerned about how the war was going, and the second wave at the end of 1918 coincided with the end of the war - soldiers coming home, celebrations, and not thinking too much about the spread of disease. The third wave at the start of 1919 was the most deadly, though I'd note here that even the first wave of the 1918 flu was much worse than the present wave of swine flu.

The book goes on to describe the outbreak of bird flu in 2005 and the speculates about a possible outbreak in Britain in 2012. One feels that Honigsbaum was rather unlucky with the timing - it seems a bit strange inventing a fictional pandemic when we're now have a very real swine flu pandemic. (We shouldn't be complacent of course, it's quite possible that we could have a bird flu pandemic in 2012 as well). The book is a bit depressing (and it's not very cheap either), so while it may be useful for those wanting more details of the 1918 pandemic, I wouldn't recommend it for 'light' reading.