Spanish Influenza: How The Most Deadly Epidemic in Human History Spread

Towards the end of 1918, a terrible epidemic shook the world. The epidemic was called Spanish influenza.

The deadliest flu in human history has killed more than 50 million people. This is more than the number of people killed in the First World War.

At that time, a quarter of the world's population died from the virus.

When spread

World War I was almost over. At the end of the war, the soldiers are going back to their respective countries. But they could not imagine that a new enemy was waiting for them at home.

Alastair Cook, a BBC broadcaster who became famous for his "Letters from America" ​​program, also contracted the Spanish flu as a child. He later described the experience in a 2004 interview with the BBC:

"I went to bed and suddenly felt sick. I had never felt so sick in my life. My body was in excruciating pain. I was devastated by fatigue and exhaustion. I had a high fever."

A woman named Aida Darwin was describing how her father also contracted the flu. His father was nursing soldiers at a military hospital on the battlefield, where he was attacked.

"It was Monday morning. My father was sick. He had survived the whole war. He was in danger. But when he got home he got the flu," she said.

The H1N1 virus is responsible for the Spanish flu.

Name why Spanish flu

But why is it called the Spanish flu? Does Spain have anything to do with it? Mark Honeygsbaum, a researcher at the Welcome Trust at Queen Mary University of London, wrote a book about the 1917 epidemic. The name is 'Living with Anga.'

He said the reason behind naming the Spanish flu was that the Spanish news media was freely covering the flu.

"When the epidemic broke out, the news of the illness of the Spanish royal family and other prominent people was spread in Spain. People in other European countries were getting sick from the virus, including Britain. But Britain was at war with Germany. The news was not released at the time.

Campaign to wear a mask in Paris during the Spanish flu.

How it spread

The first outbreak of Spanish flu occurs in May-June. But it did not come from Spain, it came from America.

Mark Honeygsbaum said the news of the influenza first came from an army camp in the United States. That camp was in Kentucky.

"The victims were young. They usually worked on farms. They went to Funston, a camp in Kentucky, for training. They crossed the Atlantic on a ship to Bordeaux, France, to fight. Illness spreads. "

Roy Grist worked as a physician at an army camp in Massachusetts, USA. He wrote a letter to a friend about the situation.

He wrote: "The epidemic started about four weeks ago. It is spreading very fast. Everyone in the camp has lost their morale. All normal work has also stopped."

"When someone is admitted to the hospital after being infected with influenza, they are diagnosed with a terrible form of pneumonia. This has never happened before. Two hours after admission, brown spots appear under the eyes. A few more hours later, it spreads to the ears." It spreads all over the face. Then it is not clear who is white and who is not white. It is found only a few hours before death. At one stage there is a terrible kind of shortness of breath. "

Mark Honeygsbaum described how the virus spread around the world: "People were moving around a lot because of the war. When the soldiers and workers returned to their home countries, the flu spread from the battlefields in northern France to their own countries."

Experts say this particular flute was more terrifying than other species of flu. Seasonal influenza usually affects adults and children. But young people were also affected by this flu.

Spanish flu was on the front page of a US newspaper at the time.

There are no people to dig graves

The second and more deadly outbreak of the Spanish flu occurred in September 1918. In a letter to the London Times, the then head nurse at Caputine Hospital described the situation as follows:

"Six thousand people have died in two weeks. Cape Town looked like a city of the dead. Covered vans were moving around the city to pick up bodies from the streets. Shops were closed. Trains and trams were closed. Theaters and churches were empty. The situation was the same in London. Like the Great Plague. "

No priest or church member was found to bury the body. The huge cemetery, six miles from Cape Town, had no one to bury. People were bringing their friends or relatives. But they were too weak to do that. Couldn't dig more than three feet. "

A girl stands next to her sister, who is lying in bed fighting the influenza virus, in November 1918. The young girl became so worried that she telephoned the Red Cross Home Service, which came to help care for the woman, whose husband was on the battlefield in France.

Mark Honeybaum says that despite the deaths of so many people, the Spanish flu has not gained much importance in history.

Explaining the reason, he said, "World War I was a battle for the national identity of each country. The role of the soldiers was like that of a hero. The list of those killed in this war has been published. But there is no list of those who died of influenza. Death is not seen as a heroic death. Families have gone through this experience on a very personal level. "

The Spanish influenza spread as quickly and as suddenly as it could, taking the lives of more than 50 million people and then suddenly disappearing in the late 1920's.