Spanish flu
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History
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Nov 24, 2024
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docx
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Spanish flu
For centuries, newly emerging and reemerging infectious disease outbreaks such as
Spanish flu have continued to subject humanity to suffering and loss of life globally. Despite the
improvement in healthcare system as most countries make highly invest in their healthcare
system, globalization and human invasiveness create more opportunities for the emergence of
these diseases through the continues change through selection, evolution and change in ways the
global population
interact
with their environment
and each other. The Spanish flu was a deadly
pandemic that occurred in 1918-1919, infecting about one-third of the world’s population and
killing up to 50 million people. The emerging infectious virus spread rapidly around the world as
it spread was aided by the troop movements and global trade and it affected people from all ages
and social classes. The paper will discuss the history behind the Spanish flu, its discovery,
characteristics, mode of infection, the economic condition it caused and the situation it drove the
global population into.
The Spanish flu is also commonly known as the influenza pandemic of 1918, but many
people attribute its start to Spain because of the eight million deaths it caused in the country in
May of 1918. However, it is believed that it was called “Purulent Bronchitis” in 19161917 and
was not as deadly as the wave of the virus that spread around the world in 1918. The first case in
the U.S. was reported in early spring of 1918 in a Kansas military camp, and in a Greek paper
around the beginning of 1918, but the title of “Spanish Flu” has stuck over time due to the large
casualties Spain in 1918.
The influenza virus, which is now commonly referred to as the flu, can strike very
quickly, causing severe symptoms that can lead to extreme discomfort. These symptoms begin
with a fever above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and then can cause muscle and joint pain, and other
symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, and a cough and cold. The Influenza virus that causes
these symptoms is very small but once inside the body, it has the ability to multiply very quickly.
Around the same time as this virus came to life, it was also right at the tail end of World War 1,
which many believe to be a key reason why influenza was a pandemic rather than a epidemic. In
World War I, close living arrangements and unsanitary conditions both in the trenches and in the
camp’s led to direct contact and aided the rapid spread of the virus. Several accounts from
physicians in World War I say that military camps and trench’s in the battlefield were the perfect
places for influenza to impact large masses of people. Even though we have the statistical
evidence from Europe and the United States, there were also reports of issues with the Influenza
virus in Asia, Africa, South America, the South Pacific, and India.
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