The Spanish Flu

The old saying that a bad thing doesn’t come alone could not be proven with a better example than that of the year 1918. The Great War was in its final steps, but over the course of 4 years, it took a toll of approximately 15-20 million lives across the globe. As if that was not enough, a flu pandemic outburst at the beginning of the year, amplifying the effects of the disaster.

Mass media has given this affliction the name of “Spanish Flu” not because it affected Spain particularly, but because the Spanish press, not being involved in the war, thus not being censored covered the most of this pandemic. Actually, the flu affected most parts of the world, killing over 50 million people over the course of 18 months, almost 3 times more than the wages of a 4 year war.

The Spanish Flu was the result of an antigenic shift between two versions of the H1N1 virus. This new strain proved to be particularly deadly, as it could kill a human through several complications such as a highly resistant form of pneumonia, high fevers and by cytokine storm. Although the studies of those times are lacking crucial information and testing (because of lack of technology and because of the crisis caused by both the War and the pandemic), it is believed that the cytokine storm was the cause of most deaths. When a cytokine storm occurs, a positive feedback loop between the cytokines and immune cells is being produced, doing intense damage to body tissues and organs. The most affected organs were the lungs, which get flooded with fluids and immune cells in case of a cytokine storm, blocking the respiratory airways.

Statistics of the Spanish Flu during those times also suffer from a high degree of vagueness, since the global crisis didn’t allow for a clear studying of the phenomenon. It is generally acknowledged that approximately 3% of the global population was killed by the Spanish flu and over 15% was afflicted.

Drastic measures were taken during the Spanish flu in an attempt to quell the spread of the disease. A lot of states and cities enforced strict rules and restrictions on public gatherings in places such as markets, theaters, churches and so forth. Public transportation, where available, was also restricted. The mass transit system would either be completely stopped, or passengers would simply not be allowed to use the public transportation without wearing a protective mask. The fear for further spreading the disease was so high that some locations even outlawed handshaking or kissing.

To conclude, it cannot be doubted that there is a correlation between the outburst and spread of the disease and the Great War. Although the formation of that particularly deadly strain of flu virus at the same time as the Great War was most likely coincidental, the poor living conditions, lack of personal hygiene environments and the movement of troops across the world definitely helped in spreading the disease.