Every pandemic or epidemic that has taken place in history has left a positive element common to all of them: they have been overcome. In fact, if we are counting it, it is that humanity found a remedy and corrected their damage. That does not mean that the balance of many of them is negative. The question is, what balance have they left the epidemics that have existed in Spain?
The epidemics that have existed in Spain
The arrival of coronavirus, which placed Spain as the world epicenter of the virus for several days, has made many look back to remember precedents. The worrying thing is that there are, and more serious than the COVID-19. The hopeful thing is that they were overcome and the country continued to progress. However, it is worth reviewing the epidemics that have existed in Spain.
Epidemics in Spain: Spanish Flu
what a pandemic bears the name of Spain, is never a good sign. That this pandemic is the deadliest in history does not help either. But the reality is that the Flu Spanish swept the world, leaving a balance of 50 million deadin little more than a year, the one that passed between 1918 and 1920.
The origin of the Spanish Flu is not clear. There are those who point out that it began in the United Statesrapidly reaching Europe through Spain, and which received its name due to the media coverage it had in the country, where until Alfonso XIII, king of the country at the time, was infected by the virus. Another version directly points to the fact that the Spanish Flu originated in Spain.
The Spanish Flu was caused by the influenza A virus subtype H1N1. The risk group for the Spanish Flu was the most worrying. Fit and healthy young people, between 20 and 40 years old. The virus spread rapidly from the State Offices to all of Spain, where the final balance was bleak, with 260,000 deadthe 1.25% of the population at the time
Epidemics in Spain: Black Death
If the Spanish flu has been the deadliest epidemic that has passed through Spain, the Black Death, also known as bubonic plague, is the most relevant epidemic that has been registered at the local level in our country. happened in Sevillein 1649and the balance it left for the Seville capital was dramatic: 60,000 dead, which accounted for 46% of the total population of Seville at that time.
By then, Seville was a European merchant port of referencecontrolling travel to Spanish America, so this black plague was not the first to suffer, but it was the most powerful. A black plague that came from Africaand before reaching Seville, he had already attacked other ports in Andalusia and Valencia.
Why was it fattened in Seville? Basically, by a series of catastrophic misfortunes. During spring, torrential rains had caused flooding in entire neighborhoods throughout the city. Particularly serious was the damage to Alameda de Herculeswhere the boats passed daily but, above all, in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods such as Triana.
Epidemics in Spain: AIDS
The AIDS pandemic It is one of the most mediatic in contemporary history, as well as one that has lasted the longest. The appearance of Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) occurs in the United States, in the early 1980s. The virus directly attacks the system immuneweakening it in such a way that it is useless to defend the body from life-threatening diseases.
Thus, many of those who die with AIDS do not die of AIDS itself, but rather diseases such as tuberculosis, infections either tumors that in healthy people, would be easily treatable. A) Yes, Since 1980, AIDS accumulates 32 million deaths and increasing, pending an effective vaccine.
In Spain, AIDS has been noticed much more than people might think. According to data from the Ministry of Health, between 1981 and 2017the HIV had caused 59,102 deaths. We are talking about 2,273 deaths per year, many more than those who lose their lives on the road. However, the maximum peak of AIDS deaths occurred in 1995, when 5,857 people lost their lives. Since that year, the numbers have only gone down.
As a worrying fact, especially for the male sector, to point out that in Spain, 80.9% of those who died from HIV were men, by 19.1% of women. Sexual intercourse without caution is still the main cause of contagion. In fact, it is currently estimated that In Spain there are 170,000 infected people. Of that total, one in five is undiagnosed. In other words, the epidemic is still going on.
The most recent epidemic that Spain has suffered has been a consequence of the global pandemic of coronavirus. With Madrid as the epicenter of the spread of COVID-19the data left by the coronavirus in the country are worrying And it is that, without having yet reached the peak of the evolution curve of the disease, and after several days of total quarantine in the country, the number of affected by the virus exceeds 15,000 people
Regarding the impact of the coronavirus, it can be said that COVID-19 affects older people, especially those with other types of ailments. The presence of the virus aggravates these diseases, causing death in many cases. Deaths that in Spain already exceed 1,100 people and, we repeat, waiting to reach the maximum peak of infected and deceased.
From the coronavirus it is known that in younger people and, above all, in young children, does not affect, with some exceptions. Also, in adults in their 30s and under, COVID-19 becomes asymptomatic. The problem is that they can transmit it and that is one of the great sources of infection that the country has found and that has made it so difficult to control the pandemic throughout the national territory.
We will have to wait several months, even years, to certify that COVID-19 has completely disappeared.
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