How severe was the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic?
Known as “Spanish Flu”, the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 was a global disaster, killing more people than World War I. Somewhere between 20 and 50 million people died. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Few people alive today remember the Spanish flu firsthand. But the global epidemic lives vividly in the collective memory of medicine and public health. We are also reminded of the Spanish flu pandemic in 2003 with the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) which was considered a deadly pandemic threat. Click here to read an interesting Washington Post article on SARS and how it relates to the Spanish flu pandemic. For more information: National Archives of Canada http://www.archives.ca/05/0518/05180202/051802020405_e.html • Stanford University www.stanford.edu/group/virus/uda/ • PBS Film: Influenza 1918 (USA) w
