1510 influenza pandemic

The 1510 flu is suspected of originating in East Asia, possibly China. Gregor Horst writes in Operum medicorum tombus primus (1661) that the disease came from Asia and spread along trade routes before attacking the Middle East and North Africa. German medical writer Justus Hecker suggested the 1510 influenza most likely came from Asia because of the historical nature of other influenzas to originate there in more recent pandemics. == Africa ==

It is generally understood that the 1510 influenza had spread in Africa before Europe. where British medical historian Thomas Short believed that the "island of Melite in Africa" became the 1510 flu's springboard into Europe. == Europe ==

Europe's internationally traveled cities and flu's highly contagious nature enabled its spread through European populations. The 1510 flu disrupted royal courts, church services, and social life across Europe. Contemporary chroniclers and those who have read their accounts observed how entire populations were attacked at once, Turin professor Francisco Vallerioli (aka Valleriola) writes that the 1510 flu featured "Constriction of breathing, and beginning with a hoarseness of voice and... shivering. Not long after that there being a cooked humor which fills the lungs." and those who were bled. after the arrival of infected merchant ships from Malta. In Sicily it was commonly called coccolucio for the hood (resembling a coqueluchon - a kind of monk's cowl) the sick often wore over their heads. Influenza quickly spread out along the Mediterranean coasts of Italy and southern France This data would indicate that the first cases of flu, which has an incubation period of one to four days, began to fall ill in the Emilia-Romagna region around late June or early July. Pope Julius II attributed the outbreaks in Rome and the Holy See to God's wrath. the flu nickname then preferred by German-speaking Europeans. A respiratory illness seemed to have menaced the Canton of Aargua in June, with the population falling ill with sniffling, coughing, and fatigue. German physician Achilles Gasser recorded a deadly epidemic spreading over the Holy Roman Empire's upper kingdoms, branching into the cities and the "whole mankind:" Mira qua edam Epidemia mortales per urbes hanc totamque adeo superiorem Germaniam corripiebat, qua aegri IV vel V ad summum dies molestissimis destillationibus laborabant ac ration privati instar phrenicorum furebant, atque inde iterum convalescebant, paucissimis ad Gorcum demissis. Influenza spread out from the Holy Roman Empire towards Northern Europe, the Baltic states, Historian François Eudes de Mézeray traced the etymology of "coqueluche" to an outbreak 1410s French surgeon Ambroise Paré described the outbreak as having been a "rheumatic affliction of the head...with constriction of the heart and lungs." French poet and historian Jean Bouchet, employed by King Louis XII's Royal Court, wrote that the epidemic "appeared in the entire Kingdom of France, as much in the towns as in the countryside." King Louis XII's National Assembly of Bishops, Prelates, and university professors scheduled for September 1510 was delayed because of the intensity of the flu in Paris. Up to 1000 Parisians per day were dying at the height of the "1510 peste." Mézeray mentions that it disrupted judicial proceedings and colleges, had access to original documents describing the influenza of 1510. The cardinal, also known as Monseigneur le Ledat, made his final testimony and recited Sacraments around 22 May before he died on the 25th. His sudden decline in health and flu's arrival in Europe around early summer have created uncertainty as to whether he died of gout or influenza, but "coqueluche" is not mentioned in French royal correspondence that year until August. but did not elaborate. and there were reports of symptoms like "gastrodynia" and noteworthy murrain among cattle. The 1510 flu is also recorded to have reached Ireland. == The Americas ==

in 1493 with severe consequences. |322x322px There are no records of influenza affecting the New World in 1510, even though Spain was sending fleets of ships across the Atlantic. The first recorded flu outbreak in the New World had afflicted the Isle of Santo Domingo (Now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in 1493. ==Medicine and treatment==

Blistering on the back of the head and shoulders was one form of treatment prescribed in Europe for the flu. Paré regarded the common treatments of bloodletting and purgation to be especially dangerous to 1510's flu patients. Supraorbital pain and vision problems were symptoms of coqueluche, so sufferers may have felt tempted to wear hoods due to light sensitivity. Short describes some medicinal treatments for the 1510 flu including "Bole Armoniac, oily lintus, pectoral troches, and decoctions." ==Origin of 1510 influenza==

Justus Hecker and John Parkin presumed the 1510 influenza originated from East Asia because of the historical nature of other influenza pandemics to originate there, while in 1661 Gregor Horst wrote that the 1510 flu spread along trade routes from East Asia to Africa before reaching Europe. European chroniclers noticed that the 1510 influenza did appear in North Africa before Europe, which has led some medical historians to suggest it may have developed there (parts of North Africa also lie along migratory bird ways, specifically the east Africa-West Asia and Black Sea-Mediterranean routes, that make it vulnerable to spontaneous reassortment of pandemic flu viruses). == Debunking suggestions of whooping cough ==

The 1510 "coqueluche" has been recognized as influenza by modern epidemiologists Suggestions that the 1510 coqueluche was whooping cough have been doubted because adult sufferers often experienced "precipitous" lung congestion, The coqueluche of 1510 is considered to be influenza by experts because of its sudden symptoms, explosive spread, and timelines of sickness to recovery. The first outbreak of whooping cough to be agreed on by most medical historians is Guillaume de Baillou's description of an outbreak in Paris in 1578. == References ==