Asian Flue Pandemic 1957

Reveals, not revels. The test materials are neutral - they don't rejoice at a positive result!

That is what a rumour is - something which is suggested as possible by one person, picked up by others, and blown up further into a definite statement as it goes from ear to ear. Chinese whispers, in fact! Everyone is so keen to know the latest "fact" and pass it on that they don't follow the story back to its shaky source.

The BCG test revels whether someone has ever been exposed to the tuberculosis bacillus and so has antibodies to it. The corresponding vaccine was created to defend against TB - antibodies are specific to one disease! It took a lot of research to develop that vaccine, and it will take hard work to develop a safe and effective one for coronavirus which differs greatly from the TB bacillus, not least by being a virus The developers have so far only had a few months to work.

Most of these rumours are incorrect, or only apply in very limited circumstances.

One of the first countries to introduce mass BCG vaccination was Hong Kong. Mao Tse Tung had just taken power in Mainland China and refugees were fleeiing to Hong Kong in thousands and living in huge squatter camps, TB was rife. We were living there and they just turned up at school one day and did the test and then returned to do the innoculation. My wound from it took about 6 months to heal.

When I went to university they had a BCG campaign and didn't believe me when I said I had had it and when, but after the preliminary test that showed immunity, they agreed that I had

It doesn't seem that the BCG rumour is correct.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/52310194

I was 6 when my family all had flu at the same time. Vague memories of my Mum and Dad bringing me lucozade to drink.

My whole family had to be tested for T.B. When the district nurse arrived with her burning instruments I hid behind the settee and they had a terrible job getting me out. Apparently I was cussing and swearing which shocked everyone rigid.

I can remember being quite poorly with flu when I was about 6 or 7 so it must have been Asian Flu of 1957. I can’t remember much about it except I was so poorly mum made up a camp bed for me in my parents bedroom and I spent most of the time zonked out. When I felt a little better I remember my auntie coming up to see me in bed and giving me a packet of blackcurrant flavoured Spangles which made me feel sick. I could never eat blackcurrant Spangles after that!

I was in the 6th form. A large number of pupils and staff were ill, but the school never closed. Oddly, none of us prefects got it, so we were sent to supervise junior classes whose teachers were ill. Several children died, though the staff survived. When the virus came round again, the following spring, I got it and it was awful, the worst flu I ever had. Luckily Scottish exams were in March, and the competitions for University bursaries shortly after that. So by the end of April, I was free to have flu and we then had a lovely family holiday in the Lake District.

Interesting names. Has anyone notices that they all are given a Far Eastern moniker? Hong Kong, Asian, Korean... Surprised that no one kept Trump’s “China 'flu”...

I had it badly in September 1957. My Mum, Dad and younger brother and I had a week's holiday in a railway camping coach at Grange over Sands when I started feeling really ill. We didn't have a car and travelled by train and going home I could hardly walk. My Mum kept making me have a nip of brandy to get me through the journey. I went straight to bed when we got back and the GP came every day for a week as I was so poorly.

My temperature went sky high and I was hallucinating, seeing Japanese jungle soldiers peering down from the ceiling at me at one point. I too had had the BCG jab and think that helped me recover eventually. It was a nasty and dangerous illness.

I have had flu twice since but never as badly as the Asian flu

Initially I had to have a Mantoux test to see if I was exposed to TB and because it proved negative I was given the BCG.

I found this post really interesting! I had no idea there was Korean Flu, Asian flu and Spanish Flu? I was just a 'twinkle in my Mums eye' at that time!
So many different types of foreign named flu's. I must talk to my mum about them.
It's crazy how we haven't learned from it. Why are many people still going out and ignoring the Governments Advice and possibly spreading this. It frustrates me. I have underlying chronic lung disease and' Sheilding' at home. These people are placing the likes of me in such danger. I get so angry.

I was 3, so thankfully had no memory and I don't remember anyone in my family ever talking about pandemics, except my mother to say she had, never met her Irish maternal grandmother because she died in the Spanish flu pandemic before she was born.

Like you twiceasnice I do remember us having measles, one after the other and lying in our curtained drawn bedrooms, my mother coming in at regular intervals to dab calamine lotion on my affected areas, or maybe that was Chicken Pox, whatever it was I vaguely recall grizzling and moaning a lot throughout

There was no rolling news, no ‘experts’ being interviewed and
explaining ‘with hindsight’ how differently things should have
been done.

I don’t remember the Asian flu I was only 4. I do remember having measles at 5 and being very ill. At one point they thought I would die . I had several convulsions which damaged my nervous system for a while and I was on medication for several years and then I seemed to “grow out of it” as my mother said and the medication was discontinued and I was fine.

I also remember having the BCG injection which is supposed to help if you get the virus, also had a pneumonia injection 4-5 years ago when I went for my flu jab, that is supposed to help protect too apparently. I have slightly reduced lung function ( born without a certain enzyme ) so am being very careful , don’t want to get it if I can help it.

re BCG - The last time I went for one they told me I didn't need it because I already had immunity.
Probably acquired when there was a TB epidemic in the early
1950s . 2 of my classmates succumbed.

I was 12 but don’t have any memories of anyone I knew having it I wonder if small towns were less affected than cities or maybe I ve just got a bad memory but I meet up with a lot of the people I was in school with and we re all still here

They are saying that it appears BCG immunisations do give some level of protection from corona. I think there will be a lot of analysis over time, as to what protects you and what makes you more susceptible, but it's early days yet.

I don't know why BCG's aren't performed to protect the lungs during this present pandemic.

I became ill with Asian 'flu but fortunately didn't contract pneumonia as was happening because I was protected by having had a BCG previously because of tuberculosis being present.

I was 7 and my mother wrote there were 15 out of 35 children in my class off with the 'flu. I think she had it too, but can't see a mention of me having it! I was poorly a lot though, what with an open fire and the London smog etc. I also had measles. It was a miserable winter, I spent all my time reading and drawing. No television of course.

I am too young to remember it but I also have a small voice inside me re. this severe lockdown and what the future holds for the world’s economy.

I had it too - I had just started a job and was living in 'digs'.
I have vague memories of going back home and being nursed by my Mum. She had to keep changing the sheets because I was sweating so much.
I don't think people moved around the world so much in those, apart from people like you M0nica, whose father was in the Armed Forces.

who remembers the flu virus 2017-2018 .this killed over 50.000 people ...why no fuss then .? i had the flu then badly...but i got over it in about two weeks.

I had it aged 11. I was very ill with it. I remember my mum sleeping in the next bed (usually occupied by my sister) for 5 days as she must have known how serious it was. I knew nothing about it but I would think everyone of that age now knows about Covid.
Were people as worried in those days? Life just went on as usual

I too had Asian flu. I remember sitting in the doctor's surgery with my Mum and a friend from my class at school came in with her Mum. My friend and I were both diagnosed, age 6. Neither of my parents or grandparents (who lived next door) got it and I am sure life in a heavy industrial Midland's town carried on as normal. No-one could have afforded to have time off let alone being furloughed by the government not so long after the war!