Hong Kong Flu 1969

I was living in Kenya at the time, and there wasn't an epidemic there, but back home, my Mum was very poorly and when she recovered, she discovered that she couldn't face smoking. She hadn't been a heavy smoker, but after the flu she never had the desire to have another cigarette. An ill wind...

12Michael that could have been the Australian flu; I remember it because we were in Australia at the time (2017) and people were becoming very ill with it, one young man DD knew of died.

Yes, it is Daisymae, unknown and frightening in the severe symptoms. No one wants to catch it.

However, HK flu, as mentioned in the OP, killed over 1 million people worldwide, possibly as many as 4 million.
Asian flu killed over 1.1 million.

Some vaccinations, eg the one developed for H1N1, carry risks too.
It is wrong to dismiss influenza and its mortality rate.

We don't want the number of deaths to reach the levels of other pandemics hence the safeguarding rules and let us hope they work.

About 3-4 years back In December , I experienced a flu bug , i was due to travel by bus and rail to my sisters and brother in laws for Xmas,
I had got up with a cold sweat , but as I was partly packed decided to travel , getting to Banbury Rail Station , I struggled with suitcase and shoulder bag , got on the train alighted at Wolves , t get local train to Shrewsbury , again struggled with suitcase got to the bus station got the bus to Market Drayton , arrived at sisters , tried some food ,and was given a hot toddy , went to my room , I did not eat properly , arrived back home after Boxing Day , still with the ailment , and slept in my flat , net morning , did the normal , toilet , weighed myself had lost 5kg in weight , at that time , each time I have symptoms, i tend to loose weight, this year it was just after my flu jab , I have when the nurse did my diabetes check .
Mick

Why the lockdown? Because it's not flu. Because it's highly contagious. Because the mortality rate is much higher than flu. Because we know what needs to be done to restrict the spread. Because the prospect of hundreds and thousands of deaths is rather worrying.

I had Asian flu in 1957 and was very ill.
DH caught Hong Kong flu in 1969 and gave it to our baby, I did not get the flu in 1969 and did wonder whether having it in 1957 afforded me some protection.
The spread of infection is much greater because of the increase in air travel and affordable flights.
In 1969 I knew very few people who could afford to fly abroad.

Why has the world locked down this time and kept going in these other pandemics which I can’t even remember in any details I must have lived through two ‘57 and ‘68 but maybe because I lived in a small town perhaps it didn’t hit us in any big way although I would have been in HK or travelling back to U.K. during the second one

So my question is why this big ole lockdown now and not before?

I vaguely remember adults mentioning in awe the Asian flu of '57, I was a child a lot of people caught it but luckily nobody in our family.

TBA?

than

It certainly didn't cause the uproar this coronavirus has

I know the effects of this virus are terrible. I know that we know more now TBA we did then.

But I was just chatting to my sister-in-law who is quite bit older than me and is bewildered by this lockdown as she does remember other pandemics and cannot remember any lockdown like this before now.

I was training as a dispenser when the first wave of the pandemic arrived in 1968 and caught it and infected my immediate family. The second wave arrived in 1969 by which time a vaccine was available and all staff at Boots were offered it by the company. The second wave caused more deaths than the first and carried on into 1970. I can recall long queues of people waiting for their prescriptions over the Xmas period in particular.
My friend, working as a nurse in our local hospital casualty department, recently told me that the porters were run off their feet collecting bodies from the ICU and various wards.

The death toll world wide was between 1 and 3 million and in the UK was originally given as 33 thousand but has been revised recently, thanks to computer modelling, up to around 80 thousand.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8027501.stm

Well I seemed to have missed both those I was 12 in 57 didn’t know anyone who got ill and I was 23 in 1968 and don’t remember anyone getting it to my knowledge then either ?

Oh I don’t know without researching,I was around in 1959 but only 11.Off to do some Googling.

heath480 depends on what site you look at, but I’m sure your figure is more accurate, is it also right if you caught the 57 flu you had some immunity to the 69 HK flu?

DH not DD she wasn't yet born!!!

I remember Asian flu in 1957. I was at boarding school and remember being quite poorly. After going home for half term, everything went back to normal and that was the end of that, at least for us!! I don't remember Hong Kong flu at all! DH and I were living in Penzance at that time with our 2 year old son. DD was in the Fleet Air arm and stationed at Culdrose. Perhaps the flu didn't reach deepest Cornwall!!

Those figures in the original post are wrong,it killed about 80,000 people here in the UK.

I was a Student Nurse at Westminster Hospital in London,it lasted ages.I was never vaccinated against it and didn’t know anybody who got it.It certainly didn’t cause the uproar this Coronavirus has.

No, I don't recall knowing anyone who had it but yes, I do remember hearing and reading about it. I would have been 24, married, with a baby only a few months old.

Clearly remember husband feeling ill in Zurich. He just wanted to get home after over 3 months away from the UK, so he got in his car and just drove...and drove until he got to Calais where he slept in the car until the ferry arrived. Big problems with flu’ where we lived and he went straight to bed for a few days when he arrived home. By the time that the frantically busy GP made a house call things were a bit better. I offered to make coffee, Doctor on one end of couch catching up with notes....husband sitting on the other end. Very cold day but sun streaming in windows.

I came back into the room - both of them asleep.

How strange I was living in Hong Kong then my eldest was born there in ‘ 67 and we came home just before she was 2 so early 69 but I have no memory of there being a big epidemic

It certainly didn’t hit any of us either over there or here

It was mainly the elderly at risk although babies died too, that must have been a scary time for you merlotgran. My symptoms were very much the same as Covid-19, no sore throat but aching muscles, coughing and extreme fatigue.

I remember the Hong Kong 'flu, but I know I didn't get it even though I was working nights at a hospital at the time.
I was vaccinated for that at the time because I was working at the hospital. Also working through the Asian 'flu pandemic 10 or so years before.

There wasn't the fear shown with the previous 2 pandemics because of the less coverage etc.
They're all respiratory infections and seem to affect the system in a similar way yet no successful cure was found except in the two previous ones a vaccine was found within a little time.

DH and I both had Hong Kong 'flu' in 1969 and so did our six months old baby girl although she had a mild dose.

The sore throat was the worst bit. I remember the only drink I could sip was warm Ribena.

I remember the 1957 Asian flu but I can't remember having HK flu, so perhaps I escaped that one. We'd just moved house and I'd changed jobs and I don't remember being off work.

There must have been a bad flu virus around in 1976, I remember having that but I'm not sure which strain it was.