Posts

Showing posts from April, 2020

Constance's World feat. the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

Image
This excerpt from a  book on Sierra Leonean women councilors, mayors, cabinet ministers, and political candidates was  first published on April 23, 2016. O ne of the pioneering political figures, Constance Horton Cummings-John, was born during the  1918 influenza pandemic, widely regarded as the most severe in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin.   I magine nursing a six-month-old baby while a deadly virus rips through town. You have neighbors hovering between life and death and your husband’s assistant has lost 21 family members to the virus. The Spanish influenza of 1918 is regarded as the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin.  First, victims experienced headaches, pain, and fever. Next, their faces turned blue-black. Then they coughed up blood and bled from the nose after. Finally, as bacteria invaded the lungs, vital organs transformed into fluid, drowning the patient. For