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Spanish Flu: Jump To Navigation Jump To Search The Great Influenza

The Spanish flu was a deadly global influenza pandemic from 1918 to 1920 caused by the H1N1 virus. It infected around 500 million people worldwide, which was nearly a third of the global population at the time, and it killed an estimated 25-50 million people. It was exceptionally lethal compared to most flu outbreaks, disproportionately killing young, healthy adults due to a cytokine storm response. The name "Spanish flu" is a misnomer as it did not start in Spain, but press reports of the pandemic there created a false impression of Spain as the epicenter. It was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

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67 views

Spanish Flu: Jump To Navigation Jump To Search The Great Influenza

The Spanish flu was a deadly global influenza pandemic from 1918 to 1920 caused by the H1N1 virus. It infected around 500 million people worldwide, which was nearly a third of the global population at the time, and it killed an estimated 25-50 million people. It was exceptionally lethal compared to most flu outbreaks, disproportionately killing young, healthy adults due to a cytokine storm response. The name "Spanish flu" is a misnomer as it did not start in Spain, but press reports of the pandemic there created a false impression of Spain as the epicenter. It was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

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Matt
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Spanish flu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigation Jump to search

"Great Influenza" redirects here. For the book, see The Great Influenza.

This article is about the influenza pandemic that began in 1918. For the virus that caused the
pandemic, see influenza A virus subtype H1N1.

Spanish flu

Soldiers from Fort Riley, Kansas, ill with Spanish flu at a hospital ward at Camp Funston

Disease Influenza

Virus strain Strains of A/H1N1

Location Worldwide

First outbreak Unknown (first observed in the U.S.)

Date February 1918 – April 1920[1]

Suspected cases‡ 500 million (estimated)[2]

25–50 million (generally accepted), other estimates range from 17.4 to 100 [3][4]
Deaths [5]

‡
Suspected cases have not been confirmed by laboratory tests as being due to this strain, although
some other strains may have been ruled out.

Influenza (flu)

Types
Vaccines

Treatment

Pandemics

 1889-1890 Russian flu


 1918 Spanish flu
 1957-1958 Asian flu
 1968 Hong Kong flu
 1977 Russian flu
 2009 swine flu

Outbreaks

See also

 v
 t
 e

Public health recommendations from the 1918 Illustrated Current News, New Haven, CT

Spanish flu, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or the 1918 influenza pandemic,
was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A
virus. The earliest documented case was March 1918 in Kansas, United States, with further
cases recorded in France, Germany and the United Kingdom in April. Two years later, nearly
a third of the global population, or an estimated 500 million people, had been infected in four
successive waves. Estimates of deaths range from 17.4 million to 100 million, with an
accepted general range of 25–50 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human
history.

The name "Spanish flu" is a misnomer,[6] rooted in historical othering of infectious disease
origin, which is now avoided.[7] The pandemic broke out near the end of World War I, when
wartime censors suppressed bad news in the belligerent countries to maintain morale, but
newspapers freely reported the outbreak in neutral Spain. These stories created a false
impression of Spain as the epicenter, so press outside Spain adopted the name "Spanish" flu.
Limited historical epidemiological data make the pandemic's geographic origin
indeterminate, with competing hypotheses on the initial spread.[2]
Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill the young and old, with a higher survival
rate in-between, but this pandemic had unusually high mortality for young adults.[8] Scientists
offer several explanations for the high mortality, including a six-year climate anomaly
affecting migration of disease vectors with increased likelihood of spread through bodies of
water.[9] The virus was particularly deadly because it triggered a cytokine storm, ravaging the
stronger immune system of young adults,[10] although the viral infection was apparently no
more aggressive than previous influenza strains.[11][12] Malnourishment, overcrowded medical
camps and hospitals, and poor hygiene, exacerbated by the war, promoted bacterial
superinfection, killing most of the victims after a typically prolonged death bed.[13][14]

The 1918 Spanish flu was the first of three flu pandemics caused by H1N1 influenza A virus;
the most recent one was the 2009 swine flu pandemic.[15][16] The 1977 Russian flu was also
caused by H1N1 virus, but it mostly affected younger populations.[15][17] The ongoing
pandemic of COVID-19, which began in December 2019 and is caused by Severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, is the deadliest pandemic since Spanish flu due to its
spread worldwide and high death toll.[18]

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