The 1918 Spanish Flu

The Spanish Flu,also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic. It was the grimmest pandemic of all epidemics that infested this earth raising the death toll from around 50 million to 100 million, that is around 3-5% of the world population. It claimed more lives than the World War of 1914. It is commonly referred to as “the Spanish flu” epidemic but Spain is highly unlikely to have been the source. To maintain morale, wartime censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in the United Kingdom, Germany, United States and France. But there were no restrictions on reporting the figures for Spain, which had taken no part in the war. So the belief grew that seemingly badly hit Spain was the epicentre of the disease. The 1918 pandemic came in three waves. During the first, in the early part of the year, deaths were relatively low. The second wave, which began in August, was much more serious, the virus having mutated to a considerably aggressive form and October was the deadliest month of the whole pandemic. Those between the ages of 20 and 40 were the most vulnerable, the virus so savage that a victim might show no symptoms in the morning but be dead by nightfall. The third wave in the spring of 1919 was more lethal than the first but less so than the second. An unusual characteristic of the virus was the high death rate among healthy young adults. But after the lethal second wave peaked in late 1918 new cases of infection dropped abruptly and the virus eventually burnt itself out. Many factors contributed to the virulence of the 1918 pandemic. The world was at war and large numbers of troops stayed in close contact. No diagnostic tests existed; in fact, doctors didn’t know flu viruses existed. Even if they had known, vaccines did not exist, antibiotics had not been invented and no antiviral drugs were available. On top of that, there was no such thing as intensive care or mechanical ventilation.