The Spanish Flu

 

The Spanish Flu

The 1918 pandemic that did not start in Spain

Source: National Geographic History

Publish 19 January 2018

The exact number of the pandemic, which is considered the most devastating in history, is unknown. A century later, the origin of this epidemic that does not respect borders or social classes is still unknown.

 

 

 

Although some researchers claim that it began in France in 1916 or in China in 1917, many studies place the first cases at the Fort Riley (USA) military base on March 4, 1918.

 

 

 

After registering the first cases in Europe, the flu passed to Spain. A neutral country in World War I that did not censor the publication of reports on the disease and its consequences, unlike the other countries focused on the war.

 

 

 

Being the only country that echoed the problem caused the epidemic to be known as the Spanish Flu. And despite not being the epicenter, Spain was one of the most affected with 8 million people infected and 300,000 people dead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emergency military hospital during the Spanish Flu epidemic. Camp Funston Kansas USA.

During the final months of World War I, a virulent strain of the influenza virus spread rapidly across the globe, infecting a third of the world's population and killing tens of millions of people. The 1918-1919 pandemic, also known as the Spanish flu, spread rapidly across the globe, infecting a third of the world's population in just 18 months. The iron censorship of the countries involved in the Great War hid its seriousness, but current studies raise the number of deaths from 20 to 50 or even 100 million. If the higher of those estimates is correct, then the pandemic would have killed more people than the two world wars combined.

 

A WORLDWIDE PLAGUE

 

 

 

No corner of the planet remained safe from the virus. In the summer of 1997, scientist Johan Hultin traveled to Brevig Mission, an Alaskan town of about 200 people, in search of buried bodies. With the permission of local authorities, he exhumed the perfectly preserved body of a woman from the frozen ground, extracted a sample of her lung, and reburied it. He intended to sequence the genome of the virus that 80 years earlier had killed that woman along with 90 percent of the local population. Brevig Mission was one more scene of one of the worst tragedies that humanity has experienced, but the iron censorship of the countries involved in the First World War hid its seriousness.

 

The flu is caused by several viruses that are very similar to each other, but only one strain (type A) is associated with deadly epidemics. Despite being known as the Spanish flu, the first cases were reported in the United States during the last year of World War I. By March 1918, the country had been at war with Germany and the Central Powers for eleven months, and its meager army had grown into a huge contingent that would eventually number more than two million troops sent to Europe. The first cases occurred in one of the many training centers that were set up in a country that was mobilized for war. The iron censorship of the countries involved in the First World War hid the seriousness of the epidemic

 

“The iron censorship of the countries involved in the First World War hid the seriousness of the epidemic”

 

On March 4, a soldier reported to the infirmary at Fort Riley, Kansas, complaining of a fever. Within hours, hundreds of recruits fell ill with similar symptoms, and over the next few weeks many more would fall ill, spreading the virus beyond the walls of Fort Riley. In April, the US contingent landed in Europe carrying the virus with them. The first wave of the epidemic had just arrived.

The strain killed its victims with unprecedented speed. Reports abounded in the United States about people getting out of bed sick and dying on their way to work. The symptoms were dire: patients developed fever and respiratory failure; the lack of oxygen caused a bluish tint to the face; the hemorrhages pooled the lungs with blood and caused vomiting and nosebleeds, so that the sick choked on their own fluids. Like so many others, the strain affected the youngest and most

 

  but also to healthy adults between 20 and 40 years of age.

 

WAR AND CENSORSHIP

 

 

 

The main factor in the expansion was undoubtedly the First World War, which was already in its last phase. Although epidemiologists still debate the exact origin of the virus – there is some consensus that it was the result of a mutation of an avian strain native to China – what is clear is that the virus went global thanks to the massive and rapid movement of the military. all over the world.

The drama of the war also served to hide the very high death rates caused by the new virus. In the early days, the disease was still not well understood and deaths were often blamed on pneumonia. Strict wartime military censorship prevented the European and American press from reporting outbreaks. Only in neutral Spain could the media speak freely about what was happening, and that is why the epidemic ended up being called the Spanish flu. It should be noted that in the Spanish case, the virus probably arrived through seasonal workers who went to work in France, since Spain was not participating in the war.

 

 

 

In the rest of the continent, the crowded trenches and camps of the First World War became the ideal habitat for the epidemic. The infection was moving with the soldiers. The spring surge subsided after a few weeks, but that was only temporary relief. After the summer of 1918, the epidemic was ready to enter its deadliest phase. The thirteen weeks from September to December 1918 constitute the most intense period, with the highest number of fatalities.

The second wave hit military installations first and then spread to the civilian population. In October it reached its peak: undertakers and undertakers were overwhelmed, and holding individual funerals was impossible. Many of the deceased ended up in common graves.

 

 

 

In Spain, the health system was overwhelmed; many doctors died and it was difficult to replace them. Coffins were in short supply. The mayor of Barcelona requested help from the army to transport and bury the dead, since the City Council could not cope. In Spain, 1918 was the first year of the 20th century with a negative vegetative growth (births minus deaths), and the only one together with 1939.

 

 

 

After a pause in the spread of the disease at the end of 1918, the third and last phase began in January of the following year. By then the pandemic had already lost a lot of strength. The harshness of the fall of the previous year was not repeated, so the death rate plummeted.

 

“The epidemic reached its peak in October 1918: coffins were in short supply and funeral homes were overwhelmed”

 

A LASTING IMPACT

The pandemic left virtually no region of the world untouched: in India alone, fatalities reached between 12 and 17 million. In Great Britain 228,000 people died. In the United States there were approximately half a million. Not even the remote island of Samoa, in the South Pacific, was spared from the contagion: it lost 23.6 percent of its population. In Spain, recent studies raise the death toll to 260,000, 70,000 more than the officially estimated. It is difficult to have exact data on the number of deaths, but the overall mortality rate is between 10 and 20 percent of those infected.

 

Scientists believe that every 50 years there is an influenza pandemic – which must be distinguished from seasonal epidemics. In 1957, a new outbreak occurred in East Asia that spread across the globe, causing, up to mid-1958, between one and two million deaths. In 1968 a new type of flu broke out in Hong Kong and produced between one and four million victims. These and other episodes show that, a century after the mother of all pandemics, risk remains in our overpopulated and interconnected world.

 

What is the Spanish flu virus called?

 

  influenza A (H1N1) responsible for the "Spanish influenza pandemic" of 1918

 

What was the cause of the Spanish flu?

 

 

 

One of the first known cases occurred on March 11, 1918, at the Fort Riley, Kansas military base. The crowded and unhygienic conditions created a fertile breeding ground for the virus. Within a week, 522 men afflicted with the same severe influenza had been admitted to the camp hospital.

 

 

 

What are the consequences of the Spanish flu?

 

 

 

 

 

Devastating due to the extent and speed of its spread, it came to cause some 50 million fatalities worldwide. Spain was one of the most affected countries, despite not having participated in the war. The Yearbooks reflect in their figures how this health emergency affected the entire Spanish society.

 

 

 

What is the deadliest virus in history?

 

The Black Death (1347-1351): 75 - 200 million deaths

 

The most devastating epidemic in human history, the Black Death, killed between 75 and 200 million people in the 14th century.

 

 

 

What is the black plague virus?

 

Plague is an infectious disease caused by Yersinia pestis, a zoonotic bacterium usually found on small mammals and the fleas that parasitize them. Transmission between animals is done through fleas.

 

 

 

Why did the black plague occur?

 

The Black Death, the greatest pandemic in our history, was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and spread across Europe between the years 1346 and 1353. Despite the pandemic's immense demographic and social impacts, its origins have long been elusive. Time.

 

 

 

How many pandemics have there been in the world?

 

 

 

Humanity has suffered more than 20 major epidemics and pandemics on record, according to the chronology outlined in 'COVID-19'. History repeats itself and we keep tripping over the same stone'.

With affection,

Ruben