The first Corona pandemic?
Not only people and animals travel around the world – germs do, too. In May 1889, doctors discover a mysterious lung disease in Bukhara (Central Asia). Pneumonia and headaches are the main symptoms, and some patients also complain of loss of taste and smell and extreme fatigue. In the first months, ‘Russian influenza’ slowly spreads in and around Uzbekistan (part of the Russian Empire at the time). St. Petersburg reports the first cases in October, from there the disease moves further west, reaching Britain at the end of December. From Western Europe, it migrates to North America in the early 1890s. Following the introduction of fast steamers, the crossing no longer functions as a quarantine period. In retrospect, this pandemic, killing 1 to 1.5 million people worldwide, turns out not to be a flu, but most likely a precursor to the recent corona pandemic.
E. Leyden & S. Guttmann (Hg.), Graphische Darstellung des Auftretens der Influenza-Pandemie in allen Erdteilen, in 16 verschiedenen Zeitabschnitten, von Mai 1889 bis October 1890 (Graphic representation of the occurrence of the influenza pandemic on all continents, in 16 different periods, from May 1889 to October 1890), in: Die InfluenzaPandemie (The influenza pandemic) 1889/90, Wiesbaden 1892. Coll. S/T F.129, 37 x 58 cm.
