Why do so many viruses originate in China?

[ohhkay]

Please explain why SARS, Coronavirus and Swine flu have all started in a similar area.

Is it because the country is very large? Is it due to the large population?

Or is it selection bias?

Many other countries are densely populated with poor living conditions. And wet markets are not solely confined to China.

I'm genuinely curious, not racist.

1918 flu

Rebel
The CDC is just one of the conflicting sources in the Wiki article and its opinion is not shared by most others

There’s plenty of places starting it starts in USA military camps.

There’s nothing much I can find to back up it being Spain.

The reason it was called Spanish flu was being the media portrayed it to be far worse there with the death of king alonso and that’s why it got that name

It didn’t get the name Spanish flu until after it had gone away

Spanish flu didn't, and that knocked out 10s of millions. Corunavirus has a little way to go don't you think

China has a dense population many people are just above subsistence level & there is quite a large number of workers who live in the cities who barely scrape by - there has been severe famines in the country in the fairly recent past (Mao's 5 year plans & his wife's which forced people to make sure they got the target amount - eg read about pig iron & also what happened to parts of the population under the little red book). Famines occurred frequently historically & this meant people eat whatever they could - whatever was available - whatever they could afford. The health & hygiene & safety have not kept pace with the privatization of technology & production. Please note in US read about the Flint water crisis - Please note in China that they have moved fairly swiftly with the quarantine - & the rapid building of hospitals to care for patients. We may criticise others for warm meat - but the suggestion recently it is not from bats but snakes - & until it is confirmed where this exactly came from & how it got there & patient zero etc I think the main aim from any epidemic is to find a preventative, care & cure & source.
Re epidemics & the Bubonic Plague - read about the Julian Plague in Ancient Rome 1347- 48, 1380's (so-called Children's Plague) & several re-occurrences until the mid 1700 (when they died down)
As for Syphilis - it would appear this disease was present in all parts of the world for thousands of years.
Sometimes a milder form of disease may occur in one country & as they have immunities they survive or at least live longer. TB was introduced to the native Americans accidently this caused massive death rates. Smallpox - I am afraid was used as a weapon in the Americas - In Europe diseases were sometimes used as siege weapons.
Rather than blaming someone for a outbreak & lets hope this does change bad practise in food sales/production - lets be concerned for the people who are suffering. (Gets off soap box) Op the problem is that we need to consider bad practice in whatever country we are & recognise that no one is perfect & we all can do better.

Theres an argument that the spanish flu nded the warr. The Royal Navy's blockade was starving the german population and army so they were dying at much highers rates.

I’m guessing if the Spanish flu had happened in 2020 rather that 1918 it wouldn’t have killed so many

They didn’t have antibiotics or much at all to treat it

It’s something that as awful as it was has thankfully taught us so much about disease spread and mutation and cleanliness

That smallpox against native americans thing is a myth.

Its a virus, antibiotics still wont touch it.

They didn’t have antibiotics or much at all to treat it
Antibiotics do not touch viruses

Antibiotics absolutely no use against flu.

The Wikipedia article even has speculation that evidence in 2014 shows the 1918 flu started in China, so who knows?!

War and military camps is probably an unhealthy breading ground for viruses if a prolific one like this got in

Antibiotics to treat the secondary infections

A lot were dying of bacterial secondary infections.

The first wave of flu In the spring was mild and it seemed to pass but come autumn it hit much worse, and people died of secondary chest and respiratory infections

You do realise how vast China is? Cities like Shanghai and Beijing are miles away from rural area of China. They can not be compared and nor are all the citizens the same

This ^^ so many ill informed people smh

Spanish Flu started in France.

I didn't think it was settled where it started.

I saw a BBC history documenary that suggested Bristish troops behind lines inWW1 pig farming may have been origin

But I've also seen USA army camp and possible orgin in China spread via chinese migrant workers.

history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/did-spanish-flu-pandemic-start-in-spain.htm

Although the Spanish Flu's exact point of origination has been hotly debated, some contend it all began in Haskell County, Kansas. There's a long-held theory that Camp Funston, a U.S. Army base, was home to the first confirmed outbreak on March 11, 1918.
...
At least one historian, however, believes that newly discovered records show the outbreak began in 1917 in Shanxi Province, China, and that the flu was spread by Chinese laborers hired to work in France and Britain during World War I. ... Many of the infected were part of the Chinese Labor Corps who moved through the east coast of North America and Canada on the way to Europe

I found extra histroy people informative though they do go mainly with US Army base theory.

I think virus spring up all over but China is very large country and does have dense population levels in places and often closer proximity to animals including pigs and birds than we have now in west.

There’s nothing much I can find to back up it being Spain.

Apparently is was called Spanish flu becuase they didn't have the reporting restictions that most of the rest of Europe was under due to WW1 - so their press was writing about it.

I have lived in China, HK and Macau for several years (work), although back in the UK now. Disease can spread rapidly due to the large numbers of people in close proximity, the lack of education amongst a lot of the poorer people and poor hygiene standards. (Whether there is more disease in China than other places I can't say).

Also note - the girl eating bat soup was not taken in China. Bat soup isn't even a Wuhan/Chinese delicacy. Wang Mengyun (the lady in the vid) is the host of an online travel show, she was eating a dish in Palau, a Pacific island nation.

It's about how they farm/ look after livestock.

This is why rules about animal welfare / hygiene such as those applied under the EU are important!

It's only a few in 20 odd years. There are a billion plus people, people travel far more than they used to, and the country is rapidly industrializing. It's not a surprise, nor is it unique to China.

re Spanish Flu it caused an over reaction of the immune system called a cytokine storm - this killed younger people who had stronger immunity - death in this case was not due to pneumonia. from what I have read the massive spread occurred in the hospitals for the soldiers in Europe & they brought it back to home countries. More people died from the 1918 epidemic than died as casualties of WW1!
Apparently the blanket story has some basis - how successful it probably was? - There was written evidence of the intent - re Sir Jeffrey Amherst - a distinctly unpleasant man.

The blanket story is that US soldiers supposely used them in the 19th century against natives.

Jeffrey Amherst spoke about it as an idea, one which they never used. Thats all.

The guy who came up with th story was subsequently involved in a massive scandal and 'stuck off'(whatever the academic version is) for that and other lies.

WhereshallWeMoveTo It's called a squeak supper. They eat live baby mice.

Wet markets. The close proximity of live and dead animals to each other and humans.

Can't you google it?

I have - and haven’t found a definitive answer