Influenza World

Flu can affect anyone – even famous people! Find out how flu has affected the lives of a few familiar names through history.

2007

Kylie Minogue
In January 2007, Australian singer Kylie Minogue reportedly had to cut-short part of her UK tour due to flu. The BBC reported that she ended her concert in Manchester, UK, after just one hour, telling the audience that she was struggling with flu and that her voice wouldn’t last to the end of the concert. Some members of the crew and the tour manager had also been suffering similar flu-like symptoms.

2006

Steve Redgrave
Prior to running the London marathon in 2006, British Olympic medal winning rower, Steve Redgrave, wrote a column on BBC online entitled flu upsets four-hour ambition. Four weeks before the marathon, Redgrave admitted that he was unsure of how he would perform as he had only done one training run in the last two weeks after coming down with flu. Redgrave writes “I ran for 45 minutes at a very, very low pace and I felt pretty rough at the end of it”. “[I was] knocked off my feet for two weeks”. 

Alex McLeish
The BBC reported in March 2006 on the Rangers football club manger, Alex McLeish, who, following two players falling ill from flu, quarantined his other players in an attempt to prevent the “flu bug sweeping the club” and ruining their Champions League dreams. McLeish was quoted as saying “I hope it doesn't spread because, if it does, we’ve got problems”.

Sepp Blatter
In 2006, British newspaper The Sun reported that the head of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, feared that if bird flu starts being passed between people, it could affect that summer’s football World Cup in Germany. Blatter was quoted as saying that “if bird flu develops into a threat like cholera or the plague, if it’s a case of people infecting people, then the government would have to take a decision. We would have to respect that. That is clear”. Reuters also covered a World Cup-related story as the German striker, Miroslav Klose, had to pull out of a ‘friendly’ match in October 2005 against Turkey because of flu. The German captain, Michael Ballack, missed the game for the same reason.

2005

Pope Jean Paul
Pope Jean Paul II, aged 84, contracted flu in 2005 and was forced to cancel all of his audiences. He was rushed to hospital 3 days after his illness was announced owing to acute breathing problems, thought to be a complication of his flu illness.

1960s

Tony Blackburn
In the 1960s, DJ Tony Blackburn collapsed on the television show Top of the Pops. He recalls “one winter in the late 1960s, there was a flu epidemic which I thought I had avoided, [that is] until we started taping the show this particular week… I was working with Alan Freeman presenting the chart run down and we got to number six and I started feeling really terrible and just fainted on the spot. Alan caught me and I came round in his arms, and he was saying “that was the most wonderful experience”.

1920s

Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry – otherwise known as the Jersey Lily – was a superstar of the Victorian era. She was a socialite who was known for her alleged affair with the then Prince of Wales, and also as an accomplished actress and writer. Lillie contracted bronchitis and then pleurisy and in her weakened state became infected with flu, which killed her in 1929 aged 75.

1910s

President Woodrow Wilson
American President, Woodrow Wilson, and his chief aid, Colonel Edward House had a key role to play in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. This famed gathering was organised by the victors of World War I to negotiate the peace treaties between the Allied and Associated Powers and the defeated Central Powers. However, as Colonel House was negotiating with the other nations he contracted a severe case of flu. He noted that “When I fell ill in January, I lost the thread of affairs and I am not sure that I have ever gotten [it] fully back.” To add to the situation, President Wilson also came down with flu in Paris during the sensitive negotiations in the final stages of the comprehensive peace treaty. He had vomiting and high fever, and it turned out that the flu virus had affected his respiratory system, heart, brain, and prostate. In fact, Colonel House noted that, just overnight, President Wilson’s personality changed. It has been extensively documented how these famous flu cases may have altered the terms and negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles.

Katherine Ann Porter
At the time of the devastating flu pandemic of 1918, Katherine Ann Porter lived in Denver as a newspaper reporter for the Rocky Mountain News. Porter contracted the flu virus that was sweeping across America. Her illness was so severe that death seemed certain. She recovered months later only to learn that flu had killed her army lieutenant lover – an event that was thought to provide the inspiration for her novel Pale Horse, Pale Rider. This literary masterpiece is acclaimed to be one of the most eloquent descriptions of how flu tore through a family’s life during a pandemic.

Harold Lockwood
Harold Lockwood was one of the most popular original silent film actors and matinee idol of the early film period at the beginning of the 20th Century. He was another victim of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, aged 31 years old.