Russian Influenza

Early Outbreak

• The Russian Flu, also known as Asiatic Flu, outbreak of 1889 was the final of five pandemics in the 1800s. By late that year, it had arrived in North America and continued to spread through 1890. Approximately one million individuals are thought to have perished from the illness. Its exact strain remains unknown though it may have been H2N2, according to Dr. Ron Kennedy of Santa Rosa, Calif. The first pandemic in 30 years, it would be the last until the infamous Spanish Flu.
  
  

Details

• According to a study of Swedish doctors tracking the outbreak in their patients, the Russian Flu had an incubation period of 1 to 3 days followed by a duration of 2.3 to 9.4 days after onset. The study, by the Division of Geoinformatics, Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and the Department of Epidemiology, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control in Solna, Sweden, calls the event "a watershed in the history of influenza" since it was the first outbreak that could be studied in light of breakthroughs in bacteriology.
  
  

Later Outbreak

• Far more is known about the later Russian Flu, an H1N1 strain, which began spreading in 1977. A largely benign pandemic related to an earlier outbreak of Asian Flu in the 1950s, the illness primarily affected younger victims who were not old enough to have developed immunity from the previous variety. A mild condition, it was generally only found in those under age 25, most of whom recovered fully in three or four days. The event was the first widespread outbreak of flu since the Hong Kong Flu of the late 1960s and would be the last until the Bird Flu scare of the late 1990s.
  
  

Spread

• Sometimes known as "red influenza" or "red flu," the later illness probably originated in China but spread quickly into the Soviet Union. By early 1978, it arrived in the United States. Common symptoms included sore throat, fever, weakness and body aches. By later that year, vaccines produced in the United States included protection against the new virus.
  
  

Pandemic Status

• The first Russian Flu is generally acknowledged as a pandemic. The 1970s outbreak, while widespread, is not always thought of as a pandemic since it only affected a younger demographic.