Deadly Viruses

Pandemics are nothing new – but how will the world cope with this latest threat?

- Anna Matheson

As many places around the world have gone into lockdown due to the spread of a new life-threatening virus, tourist attractions stand empty and photos of deserted streets flood the news. Worried citizens have been panic-buying essentials, stripping shelves of everything from pasta to toilet rolls.

Despite government reassurances, many people feel anxious as plans are put into action to deal with the mass outbreak of the coronavirus COVID-19.

The coronavirus is a family of viruses that cause respiratory infections in humans, ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases, like SARS. This most recent strain, COVID-19, believed to have passed from bats to humans,originated in Wuhan, China.

But viral outbreaks aren’t a new phenomenon. The earliest known pandemic was recorded in 430BC Athens during the Peloponnesian War, when a disease suspected to be typhoid fever spread from Africa to Greece, wiping out two thirds of the population.

Since then, plagues, leprosy and cholera have decimated populations, while seasonal flu is estimated to kill up to 650,000 people every year, with the elderly and vulnerable most at risk.

In the past 50 years, a spate of virus outbreaks have caused panic, and while it is still unclear just how bad this 2020 outbreak might yet be, Woman’s Own speaks to one mum about the consequences of losing a loved one during a pandemic.

‘I couldn’t accept that my girl was gone’

Gemma Ameen, 37, lives in the West Midlands with her husband, Zana, 44, and their children, Lian, eight, and Aran, six.