the.com/influenza
The flu: proof your immune system will declare war over a sneeze.
means An acute, highly contagious viral respiratory infection that brings fever, aches, and exhaustion in a sudden, miserable wave.
from Borrowed directly from Italian 'influenza,' meaning 'influence' — from Latin 'influentia.' Italians used it for epidemics because they blamed outbreaks on the unseen 'influence' of the stars and planets, astrological forces thought to rain down disease on cue. The English picked up the word in the 1700s after a European flu epidemic, keeping the celestial name long after anyone still believed in the celestial cause.
- name origin
- Italian for influence, blamed on stars and cold weather
- 1918 pandemic
- killed more people than World War I did
- mutation rate
- changes yearly, so vaccines are educated guesses
- spread method
- travels on droplets before symptoms even appear