What is the Spanish Flu?
The Spanish flu was a terrible worldwide epidemic that killed between 50-100 million people in an 18 month period throughout 1918 and 1919. This classifies it as a 5 on the Pandemic Severity Index, meaning more than 2% people who were infected died. The Spanish flu resulted in the death of 2.5-5% of the world population at the time it struck, killing more than World War I, which it occurred immediately after. The Spanish flu was in the same category of severity as the Bubonic Plague, which, when it struck as the Black Death, killed about 75 million people, 25-50 million of them in Europe. The Spanish flu was caused by an unusually severe and deadly Influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1. In contrast to most influenza outbreaks in history, the Spanish flu struck people down in their prime of life, rather than picking off the old and young. People with weaker immune systems, such as children and middle aged adults, had lower mortality rates, while young adults had the highest mortality
The 1918 flu, or “Spanish flu,” caused the highest number of known influenza deaths. More than 500,000 people died in the United States, and up to 50 million people may have died worldwide. Many people died within the first few days after infection with the Spanish flu, and others died of related complications. Nearly half of those who died were young, healthy adults.
This is a rather a old strain with it’s first appearance in 1919. In two years, over 30 million people died from Spanish Flu. Many of the Soldiers returning from Europe to North America brought the virus with them. In 1920, in New York City over 500 people a day were dying of it. There was no cure, it had to run it’s course. Such a world-wide illness is called a PANDEMIC.
