The 1918 Spanish Flu: The Tragic History of the Massive Influenza Outbreak

By James Parker

Deep Lessons and Insights from the Spanish Flu of 1918 and How We can Apply those in the Present Times

 

As the first world war raged on in 1918, an enemy of a different kind began to attack all of humanity regardless of their nationality, age or gender.

 

The Spanish Flu erupted and was active for two years until 1920. It spread rapidly throughout the world and ranks next only to the Bubonic Plague of 1346 in the magnitude of devastation that it caused.

 

The flu was transported through travelling soldiers as they were shipped out to various parts of the world to fight. It is estimated that between approximately 500 million people contracted the deadly virus and between 15 to 100 million people died from it.

 

A coordinated response by a global community meant that world governments and medical professionals came together to help curb the spread of the virus. However, there was no cure to the pandemic.

 

And with no cure to counter the pandemic, the only measures in place were non-pharmaceutical based. These included isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants and limits being placed on public gatherings.

 

You may be wondering

What were the origins of the Spanish Flu and how did it become so rampant in spreading throughout the world?

 

How did the flu spread and which countries and regions were affected by it?

 

How did world governments respond in countering the pandemic and what were the measures undertaken?

 

How did people react to the outbreak and what were some of the changes in their mindset as they underwent the experience?

 

What are some of the lessons we can learn from the pandemic in order to be better prepared should a similar virus erupt again in the future?

 

Here is a preview of what you will find in this book:

• Detail on the origin of the Spanish Flu, what it was, how did it erupt and began to spread rapidly
• How it began to mutate as it spread in consecutive waves around the globe
• What are some of the theories that evolved to explain the outbreak of the deadly virus, how it affected the way people thought and the superstitions that developed around it
• What were the reactions in countering it and as a result what were the medical advancement that those efforts led to
• What social changes occurred during this time given that everyone from almost all walks of life was drawn to help fight pandemic
• How the world came together as one to understand the virus, formulate a coordinated response and began an ensuing fight against the silent killer
• The lessons we have learned so far as a result in helping us being better prepared to counter something similar should it erupt in the future, including the ongoing virus pandemic
• And much more!

• Language: English
• Publisher: MG Publishing
• Release date: Dec 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393308232

Book preview

The 1918 Spanish Flu

The Tragic History of

the Massive Influenza Outbreak

James Parker

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Why is it so hard to pin down the death toll?

Disease at the Turn of the 19th Century

Influenza is always potentially fatal.

Terms to Know

What is Influenza?

Meet the Influenza Virus

Leading Up to the Spanish Flu:  The Russian Flu Epidemic of 1889

The Spanish Flu

Where did it come from?

China

The United Kingdom, care of France

The United States, and the Men of Haskell County, Kansas

The Infection of Europe: Spring 1918

The Second Wave and the Deadliest Year of the Century

The Mutation

The Second Wave in the United States

Carry a Potato in Your Pocket

Medical Mysteries During the Spanish Flu

The Unexpected Affliction of Young Adults and the Cytokine Storm

The Theory of Aspirin Poisoning

Countermeasures

Philadelphia: The Pandemic’s Most Devastating Example

The Long Ending

Armistice and the Third Wave

Medical Advances Made During the Spanish Flu Pandemic

A Silver Lining: Women’s Increased Status in the Fallout of Flu and War

Stories from the Spanish Flu

The Forgotten Pandemic?

Biological Warfare: Outing the Spanish Flu

The Research that Followed

Finding the Real Spanish Flu Virus

Why is the genetic sequencing important?

Creating a Lethal Virus

The Live Virus: Available for Interrogation

What was learned from the reconstructed virus?

One Hundred Years Since Then

How Safe Are We From an Influenza Pandemic?

Conclusion: Centennial

Resources

Films

Books/Articles

Websites

Introduction

The Spanish Lady.  Three-Day Fever.  Sandfly Fever.  Blitz Katarrh.  The Blue Death.  The Spanish Flu.  These were some of the names given to a pandemic that, for almost two years, gripped the world.  This is the bizarre horror story of a disease, deadly and fast-moving, that was often ignored in favor of feeding a war machine engaged in worldwide conflict.  Once the pandemic had lifted, memory of it was pushed out of the public mind, as if the whole thing were simply too baffling and chaotic to recall.

From January 1918 until December 1920, as people around the world focused on the final stages of World War I, a strain of influenza virus (Influenza A virus subtype H1N1) crawled across the globe, carried on the backs of soldiers, transported by ships across every ocean, bolstered by increases in civilian travel and a general failure of sanitation and public health safety.  It was the deadliest flu pandemic in history.  Due to a strange twist of fate concerning wartime censorship, the illness was dubbed the Spanish Flu although it gathered other frightening nicknames as time passed.  Roughly one-third of the world’s population was infected, a fraction that, at the time, meant about 500 million people contracted the illness. 

The Spanish Flu moved fast, over two years and in three waves.

The First Wave (Spring 1918) was a severe and highly contagious influenza spread into the trenches of war in Europe.  

There, at some point during the summer of 1918, the virus mutated into something so strange and deadly that it could hardly be identified, much less contained, in the Second Wave (Fall 1918).  This mutation is responsible for the majority of the Spanish Flu fatalities as well