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The 1889–1890 flu pandemic (October 1889 – December 1890, with recurrences March – June 1891, November 1891 – June 1892, spring 1893 and winter 1893–1894) was a deadly influenza pandemic that killed about 1 million people worldwide. The outbreak was dubbed "Asiatic flu" or "Russian flu" (not to be confused with the 1977–1978 epidemic caused by Influenza A/USSR/90/77 H1N1, which was also called Russian flu). For some time the virus strain responsible was conjectured (but not proven) to be Influenza A virus subtype H2N2.[1][2] More recently, the strain was asserted to be Influenza A virus subtype H3N8.[3]
The largest nineteenth-century influenza epidemic in Europe probably had its beginning in November and December 1889. Spreading over Europe from the east, the epidemic received the name ‘the Russian influenza’ or ‘the Asiatic influenza’.
The first wave of the so-called ‘Russian’ influenza epidemic, which occurred commonly all around Europe in the years 1889–90, drew the careful attention of the Poznań press. The first reports on the victims of the disease that could point to the beginning of an epidemic appeared in the first days of December 1889 and concerned the city of St. Petersburg. The first information on the arrival of the epidemic in Western European cities referred to Berlin and later to such cities as Paris, Vienna, London, Barcelona, and Madrid. The disease did not spare Italian aristocrats.
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