i recently read a book that i bought in taipei, in a 24-hours bookshop. yeah, there's a 24-hours bookshop there, as opposed to in malaysia. there's even a cafe inside there, 24 hours. damn cool. there's no mamak or stuffs like that there, so i guess people go to the bookshop. and i'm surprised there's so many people inside browsing the books, even when we were there till 5am, there's still so many people. either they're really hardworking or they're really sexually frustrated (as how my colleague puts it, hehe). they're not really wearing purple so sexually deprived is out of the question (or maybe not :p).
anyways, i bought this book entitled "Flu", published in 1999. I repeat, 1999. The book was about the 1918 influenza (flu) pandemic, the symptoms much like the current SARS, flu symptoms, high fever, cough etc. Victims died of the lungs literally being flooded, drowned by their own lung fluids. Anyways, there's certain interesting facts... which includes :
i) these epidemic happens around the 11-year cycle, with certain exceptions, 1898, 1918, 1930 (i think), (there might be some dates here but i don't have the book now, can't verify, 1968, 1979, 1990. these are epidemics that has flu-like symptoms, which included Hong Kong flu epidemic, the swine flu epidemic, etc.
ii) the 1918 pandemic killed approximately 20 to 30 million worldwide, but there's certain sources said that 20 million died in india alone, which makes the numbers much bigger than that.
iii) most of the epidemics (with the exception of the 1918 pandemic, they couldn't prove it, but they have certain theories, and also the swine flu) originated from.... you guessed it, Guang Dong, china. the old name for guang dong is canton. u can't help but wonder what it means for the SARS epidemic which originates from..... u guessed it again, Guang Dong, china.
The book speculated about the third issue a lot, even trying to explain the theories that the 1918 pandemic originates from that side of the world, towards the end of the book. And you can't help but wonder what it means for this SARS epidemic, and in fact, for all the flu-like epidemics that happened. If they had known that Guang Dong is the place they normally originate from, that fact itself should've triggered a red alert when somebody who came from Guang Dong died of flu in HK.
I wonder what took the scientists so long to detect the virus, since this case isn't really new to the world. In the news, they were even considering bacterias, when in the book it's so obvious it's a virus.
And to think the book was published in 1999. shit.
