Spanish Flu: The 20th century pandemic that changed the course of history

After World War I ended in 1918, soldiers, who were stationed abroad in brutal health conditions, started returning home. In the same year, something emerged that seemed as benign as the common cold but soon escalated into one of the deadliest medical disasters of the 20th century-the Spanish flu.

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It is believed that in the UK, the flu spread through soldiers who returned home after living under extremely unhygienic conditions in trenches in Northern France. The flu nicknamed  ‘la grippe’, started to spread in the UK after the soldiers became ill with symptoms such as sore throat, headaches and loss of appetite. According to reports, the death toll was 2,28,000 in the UK alone. The global mortality rate is not known but is estimated that between 10% to 20% of those who were infected succumbed to the illness. 

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‘Spanish Flu’

The airborne infection was named ‘ Spanish Flu’ owing to the fact that initial cases were reported in Spain. Spain was neutral in the war, which meant it did not censor its media unlike other countries such as Germany, Britain and France who had media blackouts to avoid the circulation of demotivating content. As a result, cases in these nations did not come in light. One of the initial cases infected by the flu was the King of Spain. Other famous personalities who were hit included the cartoonist Walt Disney, US President Woodrow Wilson, activist Mahatma Gandhi, actress Greta Garbo, the painter Edvard Munch and Kaiser Willhelm II of Germany.

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Impact

An estimated 500 million people from the South Seas to the North Pole fell victim to the flu between 1918 and1920. Out of the total, one-fifth of died. Many indigenous communities were pushed to the brink of extinction. Some people, within hours of feeling first symptoms of fatigue, fever and headache, would rapidly develop pneumonia and start turning blue, signalling a shortage of oxygen. They would then struggle for air until they suffocated to death. Doctors and nurse worked to breaking point and did whatever they could but with no antibiotics and no treatment they could not do much to save lives. 

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Image Credits: Twitter/SJSU