Follow up from last week’s part 1 about a child born in 1914 and all the tragedies that he lived through his life.
1939-1945: WORLD WAR II: 60 million mortalities worldwide, among which six million Jews in the Holocaust. (Now a 25 year old young adult, he may have volunteered to join the Allied forces; by good karma or by luck, he may have returned home alive and intact.)
1950: KOREAN WAR in which 26,000 Canadian military personnel served as United Nations Peacekeepers, 516 casualties. (Now a 36 year old adult)
1957-1958: ASIAN FLU, originated in China and spread swiftly around the world; it resulted in 1-2 million victims worldwide, some 7,000 in Canada; it marked the first time a vaccine was prepared to try and control the pandemic. (Now aged 43)
1964-1975: VIETNAM WAR in which Canadian Military served as Peacekeepers; the Canadian government parallel served as asylum and safe haven to 40,000+ Americans deserters or draft resisters. (Now aged 50)
1968-1972: HONG-KONG FLU, originated in Asia, 1-4 million victims worldwide, an estimated 4,000 in Canada. (Now aged 54)
SMALLPOX (or VARIOLA VIRUS): as recently as the 1950’s, estimated cases of 50 million per year; eradication was confirmed by World Health Organization in December 1979 after successful vaccination campaigns.
MEASLES: by 1962, 90% of people were infected by age 15; vaccination was introduced in 1963 and controlled the spread of the virus.
TUBERCULOSIS: one quarter of the world’s population has already been infected but only 5-10% of those latent infections will progress to become active; annually, eight million of the world population gets infected and two million die; in 2018, tuberculosis became the leading cause of death from an infectious disease, followed by malaria and HIV/AIDS. There is no vaccine, but a drug treatment.
1981-…:HIV-AIDS: first reported cases from Africa; 32 million victims worldwide and counting; in Canada, over 63,000 people living with HIV and 85% are under treatment; no vaccine available yet. (Now aged 67)
1998: THE GREAT NORTH AMERICAN ICE STORM (Then 84): The North American Ice Storm of 1998 (also known as Great Ice Storm of 1998) was a massive combination of five smaller successive ice storms in January 1998 that struck a relatively narrow swath of land from eastern Ontario to southern Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Canada, and bordering areas from northern New York to central Maine in the United States. It caused massive damage to trees and electrical infrastructure all over the area, leading to widespread long-term power outages. Millions were left in the dark for periods varying from days to several weeks, and in some instances, months. It led to 34 fatalities, a shutdown of activities in large cities like Montreal and Ottawa, and an unprecedented effort in reconstruction of the power grid. The ice storm led to the largest deployment of Canadian military personnel since the Korean War, with over 16,000 Canadian Forces personnel deployed, 12,000 in Quebec and 4,000 in Ontario at the height of the crisis. (Source: Wikipedia)
