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The influenza pandemic of 1918–19 was the most severe pandemic of the 20th century and, in terms of total numbers of deaths, among the most devastating in human history. Outbreaks occurred in every inhabited part of the world in three waves. The second wave was the most deadly.
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How many people died as a result of the influenza pandemic...
- Pandemic
- What Is The Flu?
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- Spanish Flu Symptoms
- What Caused The Spanish Flu?
- Why Was The Spanish Flu called The Spanish Flu?
- Where Did The Spanish Flu Come from?
- Fighting The Spanish Flu
- Aspirin Poisoning and The Flu
- The Flu Takes Heavy Toll on Society
- How U.S. Cities Tried to Stop The 1918 Flu Pandemic
Influenza, or flu, is a virus that attacks the respiratory system. The flu virus is highly contagious: When an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks, respiratory droplets are generated and transmitted into the air, and can then can be inhaled by anyone nearby. Additionally, a person who touches something with the virus on it and then touches his...
In the United States, “flu season” generally runs from late fall into spring. In a typical year, more than 200,000 Americans are hospitalized for flu-related complications, and over the past three decades, there have been some 3,000 to 49,000 flu-related U.S. deaths annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Young childr...
The first wave of the 1918 pandemic occurred in the spring and was generally mild. The sick, who experienced such typical flu symptoms as chills, fever and fatigue, usually recovered after several days, and the number of reported deaths was low. However, a second, highly contagious wave of influenza appeared with a vengeance in the fall of that sam...
It’s unknown exactly where the particular strain of influenza that caused the pandemic came from; however, the 1918 flu was first observed in Europe, America and areas of Asia before spreading to almost every other part of the planet within a matter of months. Despite the fact that the 1918 flu wasn’t isolated to one place, it became known around t...
The Spanish Flu did not originate in Spain, though news coverage of it did. During World War I, Spain was a neutral country with free media that covered the outbreak from the start, first reporting on it in Madrid in late May of 1918. Meanwhile, Allied countries and the Central Powers had wartime censors who covered up news of the flu to keep moral...
Scientists still do not know for sure where the Spanish Flu originated, though theories point to France, China, Britain, or the United States, where the first known casewas reported at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas, on March 11, 1918. Some believe infected soldiers spread the disease to other military camps across the country, then brought it ...
When the 1918 flu hit, doctors and scientists were unsure what caused it or how to treat it. Unlike today, there were no effective vaccines or antivirals, drugs that treat the flu. (The first licensed flu vaccine appeared in America in the 1940s. By the following decade, vaccine manufacturers could routinely produce vaccines that would help control...
With no cure for the flu, many doctors prescribed medication that they felt would alleviate symptoms… including aspirin, which had been trademarked by Bayer in 1899—a patent that expired in 1917, meaning new companies were able to produce the drug during the Spanish Flu epidemic. Before the spike in deaths attributed to the Spanish Flu in 1918, the...
The flu took a heavy human toll, wiping out entire families and leaving countless widows and orphans in its wake. Funeral parlors were overwhelmed and bodies piled up. Many people had to dig graves for their own family members. The flu was also detrimental to the economy. In the United States, businesses were forced to shut down because so many emp...
A devastating second wave of the Spanish Flu hit American shores in the summer of 1918, as returning soldiers infected with the disease spread it to the general population—especially in densely-crowded cities. Without a vaccine or approved treatment plan, it fell to local mayors and healthy officials to improvise plans to safeguard the safety of th...
Jun 18, 2024 · How many people died as a result of the influenza pandemic of 1918–1919? The influenza pandemic of 1918–1919 resulted in an estimated 25 million deaths, though some researchers have projected that it caused as many as 40–50 million deaths.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Estimates as to how many infected people died vary greatly, but the flu is regardless considered to be one of the deadliest pandemics in history. An early estimate from 1927 put global mortality at 21.6 million. An estimate from 1991 states that the virus killed between 25 and 39 million people.
Mar 18, 2020 · In 1918–19, it killed between 20 and 100 million people, including some 50,000 Canadians. Telephone operators in High River, Alberta, wear face masks during the Spanish flu pandemic, October 1919. Why Was the 1918 Pandemic Commonly Called the “Spanish” Flu?
Oct 6, 2020 · That pandemic was the deadliest in the 20th century; it infected about 500 million people and killed at least 50 million, including 675,000 in the United States.
Dec 11, 2020 · All told, if 50 to 100 million people died in the 1918 and 1919 pandemic, and tens of millions more have died in the ensuing century of seasonal flus and pandemic outbreaks, then all of...
