Head of the European University of Lefke (EUL) Health Sciences Faculty Health Management Department Asst. Prof. Dr. Macide Artaç Özdal shared information on “The difference of the coronavirus pandemic from other pandemics throughout history and the importance of protection from coronavirus”.

“Pandemics have negative health effects on societies as well as economic and psychosocial effects”

“Pandemics cause negative health effects on societies as well as economic and psychosocial effects. Pandemic is a term that comes from ancient Greek like other medical terms. While “pan” means “all” in ancient Greek, “demos” means people. “Pandemic” is used to mean an epidemic disease that has a wide range of effects on the world surface. ” noting that the disease has not been exposed before, the disease factor that causes the disease has a great impact on people’s health and must be contagious, she stated that, when looking at the history, there are many epidemic pandemics in the world.

“When we look at the history of the pandemic in the world, the world’s largest pandemic was experienced in the plague disease pandemic”

In the continuation of Özdal’s statement, “When we look at the history of the pandemic in the world, the world’s largest pandemic was experienced in the plague disease pandemic. The plague caused serious devastation in Europe in the 14th century and resulted in the deaths of more than 200 million people all over the world. Plague disease is transmitted by a bacteria found in fleas carried by mice. After the plague, the pandemic that had the most impact in the world was the cholera pandemic that started at the beginning of the 19th century and it was cholera, another bacterium, that caused this epidemic. Cholera causes diarrhea in the intestine and this pandemic is among the most effective pandemics in the world.  When we come to the 20th century in history, “Flu”, which is a viral disease, has caused great losses in the world. Flu disease began to affect the world in 1918. More than 100 million people died within one and a half years in the epidemic called “Spanish Flu”, which was the first Flu pandemic. Later, a pandemic that started in Hong Kong between 1968 and 1969 began to affect the world population, and the flu vaccine was found in the United States one month after the “Hong Kong flu” was infected, but still the epidemic in Hong Kong was 15% of the entire population. It affected. Between 1972 and 1973, the flu pandemic, called the “London flu”, affected the world populationThen, in March 2009, for the first time in Mexico, an outbreak of influenza A (H1N1), popularly known as Swine flu, started among humans. The reason why this flu is called “Swine flu” is that it resembles a virus that appears in pigs. The World Health Organization declared the swine flu epidemic as a pandemic in June 2009. This disease still causes many deaths, especially in the winter months, ” she said.

“As with seasonal flu, coronavirus mostly affects people over 65 years of age and people with chronic diseases”

“The world is now under the influence of the Covid-19 Pandemic caused by the corona virus, a new type of SARS, after the H1N1 swine flu epidemic that started in 2009 and affected world societies as a pandemic. Although the world has been under the influence of many epidemics before, the current Covid-19 pandemic has caused great concern and panic worldwide. Well, what is the reason for this? After the Spanish flu caused by another type of H1N1 virus in 1918, Covid-19 is a virus with a high mortality rate in the world, ”Özdal said She also stated that in the most recent swine flu epidemic before the Covid-19 pandemic, 60.8 swine flu cases were reported within 1 year since April 2009, and 12,500 people were found to have died among these cases.Özdal, “This shows that swine flu has a mortality rate of about 0.02 percent. However, looking at the deaths caused by the coronavirus, the death rate in the first months of the epidemic in the world was 2%, that is, the mortality rate of the corona virus was much higher than the swine flu. Considering asymptomatic or mild cases in the society, it can be said that the death rate has decreased. However, if seasonal flu and swine flu mortality rates are compared with corona virus mortality rates, death rates due to coronavirus are still higher. As with seasonal flu, corona virus affects people over 65 years of age and people with chronic diseases negatively and causes higher mortality rates in these population groups. Children, young and middle-aged people who are actively living in the society, especially those who are in close contact with many people in their work or school lives, can cause the elderly and other individuals who are at high risk of death due to corona virus infection to be affected by the virus. Therefore, until an effective vaccine is found and the vaccine reaches a large part of the population, all individuals must do their part and take the necessary measures to protect especially the at-risk groups of the society.

“We should get used to living with the measures specified with the coronavirus, we must protect ourselves and our loved ones”

Lastly, Özdal stated, “The most important measures to be taken can be listed as follows: mask should be worn especially in crowded and closed environments, elderly, pregnant women and children with high risk should not enter crowded environments unless necessary, personal hygiene should be provided and especially hands should be washed frequently, strengthening the immune system. A balanced diet and sleep patterns should be considered, people with symptoms should be separated from the community and contact with other people should be avoided. While living with the coronavirus epidemic, we should not forget that we can prevent the spread of the virus, which can be easily transmitted from person to person in the society and which can adversely affect people with a low immune system, with very simple methods. Therefore, we should get used to living with the measures specified with the coronavirus, which affects societies to a great extent and especially the elderly people badly, and we should protect ourselves and our loved ones ”.