• Author Laura Spinney described the Spanish Flu as “the greatest tidal wave of death since the Black Death, perhaps in the whole of human history”
• Estimated to have caused the deaths of between 50-100 million people and infected 1/3 of the human population, around 500 million people
• Flu killed far more than either the First or Second World Wars, and may even have killed more than the death tolls from both conflicts combined
• Also forced fundamental changes to public health care systems across the globe and its severity and impact is still felt today
• Sometime in late 1917 or early 1918 a strain of avian flu managed to make the transition from birds to humans
• Historians still debate the exact location of ‘patient zero’, the very first person to become infected with this deadly new strain – some scientists such as British virologist Professor John Oxford argue that the outbreak began in a hospital camp in Etaples, France, whilst others suggest that it began in a US Army camp in Kansas
• Spain was immune from the censorship that limited the wartime nations press so when the Spanish King was struck down many newspapers were finally able to report on the outbreak that was sweeping across the world – these press reports then led to a mistaken belief that the outbreak had started in Spain
• Unusual circumstances of 1918 helped the virus to travel further and faster than in any previous event in human history – the First World War resulted in the largest global migration of humans yet seen which enabled the virus to spread on troopships and transports, to every corner of the globe
• Furthermore the large conceptions of people, especially in the military, enabled the virus to infect individuals with lightning speed
• There was no way of studying the virus effectively or developing a cure because although the study of bacteria was well known, the presence of viruses had been postulated but never proven because no equipment then existed to observe something so small
• The Spanish Flu appeared to target young men and women between the ages of 18-35 which normally has the strongest and healthiest immune systems, able to fight off any illnesses however the Spanish Flu turned its victims own immune systems against them as the virus would trigger a Cytokine Storm, an autoimmune response whereby the victims immune system goes into overdrive, attacking and causing significant damage to lung tissue which would cause the victims to turn blue as their bodies battled for oxygen and then victims would then eventually drown as their lungs filled with fluid
• The first wave of the outbreak in early 1918 was mild by comparison, but by August a second far deadlier strain was sweeping the world
• Crewe in the North West of England – first reports hit the town in June 1918 and reportedly laid low many of its residents, especially in its large railway works which would prove the perfect breeding ground for the virus, by November the virus had claimed 60 lives in just a 10 day period and resulted in 115 internments in Crewe’s cemetery, the highest in any month since the cemetery opened and in November 1918, 18 of the 38 men killed on active service are confirmed to have died of an influenza related illness
• The virus became a victim of its own success, its deadly nature resulted in victims failing to pass on more deadly strains, which eventually led to the virus appearing to seemingly vanish after the end of the 3rd wave in 1919
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The Spanish Flu is such a devastating part of history, and it’s crazy to think about how it affected so many lives. With all the research and debate about its origins and spread, do you think we’ve learned enough from it to better handle future pandemics?
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Crazy to think there was no way to study the virus back then!
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