On the eve of 31 December 2019, as the world celebrated the start of a new decade, the province of Wuhan alerted the World Health Organization of several 'flu-like' cases. Less than a week later, a novel coronavirus, was identified. In February, the disease it caused was named COVID-19.

The symptoms of Coronavirus are dangerously similar to that of the common flu: fever, coughing, breathlessness, tiredness, headache and muscle pain. But in India, that has such a high population density, we will have to do more than just stick to Namaste to greet each other. What we need most right now is credible and comprehensive information from professionals that can help us understand what the Coronavirus is, and how we can prepare and protect ourselves against it.

Panic is historically an integral component of pandemics. Understanding the Coronavirus within a larger, historical context of pandemics and survival is crucial to prepare – mentally, emotionally, and strategically – for the times about to come. Find an introduction to this history in an excerpt below.

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One Hundred Years of Pandemics

According to several estimates, influenza killed more people in two years than World Wars I and II cumulatively did in ten. Although precise counts were not available a hundred years ago, recent estimates of influenza deaths place the number close to 100 million of a global population of around 1.8 billon. As a proportion of today's population that number is about 427 million, which is more than the population of the continent of South America.

Although it was called the Spanish flu, it is believed to have originated in the United States. Epidemiological evidence indicates it began in Haskell county, Kansas, from where it spread to a nearby large army base (conspiracy theorists, do we have your attention)! From Kansas, the flu advanced in all directions to sweep the United States, followed by Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, Pacific islands and within a year the entire world. Why then was it called the Spanish flu? King Alphonso III of Spain fell gravely ill to it in 1918. The court tried to contain the news. Then, as now, information spread faster than the virus and, ironically, partly because of the secrecy shrouding the royal demise, it got known as the Spanish flu. Plus ca change . . . Although the court may have tried to keep the king's illness under wraps, the Spanish press had virtually no wartime censorship since Spain was neutral in World War I. It reported freely on the illness (calling it the French flu). Since most of the reporting on the pandemic emanated from Spain, it was wrongly assumed that it was the epicentre and hence the name.

The pandemic has not been extensively chronicled, partly because the war occupied the attention of the press. It is sometimes called 'the forgotten pandemic' or 'a global calamity that the world forgot'. However, due to recent viral outbreaks, it has received renewed attention. Scientists have exhumed bodies of victims preserved in the Alaskan permafrost, examined tissue samples and patient records, and a consensus has emerged that it was a H1N1 virus possibly originating in China and may have evolved from an avian influenza virus in birds. This gives an ironic twist to the popular rhyme that children sang in the streets:

I had a little bird

And its name was Enza

I opened a window

And in-flu-enza!

Children could sing in the streets. They fared better than adults did. The majority of deaths occurred to those in their prime between the ages of twenty and forty. The symptoms included cough, sore throat, runny nose and breathing problems. These were severe and progressed rapidly, often culminating in death.

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To understand responses and possible ways forward by placing COVID-19 in a historical context, the authors mention Lord Byron's words: 'The best prophet of the future is the past'.

A complete story of a disease must include the 5 Ws: the what, who, where, when and why. Epidemiologists are the disease detectives who investigate a new disease like COVID-19. They explore the what (health issue of concern), who (person or people affected), where (place in which the disease is occurring), when (time course of the disease) and why (causes, risk factors, modes of transmission).Stories of past pandemics and viruses help disease investigators and scientists build this framework in order to tackle the novel Coronavirus affecting the world currently.

is the first book that addresses the history, evolution, facts and myths around the pandemic.