Influenza which is commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae. Influenza makes a strong case of evidence in favour of panspermia. It is claimed that influenza outbreaks were caused by newly arriving viruses from space. The influenza outbreak of 1918-19 took several days and weeks to travel to short distances, but appeared on the same day in widely separated parts of the world. The outbreak is believed to have started in Boston (USA) and in Mumbai (India) at the same time; in 2 sites situated in 2 different continents. The pandemic also started suddenly during winter in 1918 in villages in Alaska which are well isolated from rest of the world during winter. Interestingly, it has been noticed that the worst flu epidemics coincide with peaks in the eleven-year cycle of sunspot activity. This was confirmed by an unusually vigorous flu epidemic that matched the pattern in January, 2000.
Last date updated on September, 2024