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The Spanish flu pandemic a hundred years ago was the deadliest epidemic in human history

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The Spanish flu pandemic a hundred years ago was the deadliest epidemic in human history

The following content is from Chapter 10 of the Children's Financial Encyclopedia Risk Event Prevention and Control of the Spanish Flu

Spanish influenza is the deadliest infectious disease in human history, infecting more than half of the world's population in 1918-1919, with a recorded fatality rate of 5-10%.

1. Background of the Spanish flu

On March 4, 1918, influenza broke out in a military camp in Kansas, USA, followed by influenza in China, Spain, the United Kingdom and other continents except Australia. The only symptoms were headache, high fever, muscle aches and loss of appetite. But by the fall of 1918 there were massive outbreaks around the world, and by 1920, the epidemic had magically disappeared.

Spanish influenza, the name does not come from the outbreak of this flu from Spain; Rather, Spain was very badly affected. About 8 million people were infected with the flu (even the King of Spain), plus they were the first countries in the world to announce the epidemic, and they could discuss it openly in Spain, but not in the United Kingdom, for fear of affecting morale, so this plague that came out of nowhere was named "Spanish influenza".

The Spanish flu pandemic a hundred years ago was the deadliest epidemic in human history

Spanish flu

2. The Spanish flu passed

The first recorded wave of influenza occurred on March 4, 1918, at a military camp in Kansas, but the only symptoms were headache, high fever, muscle aches and loss of appetite. However, at the time, it was said that the flu originated in southern China and was spread by Chinese laborers who supported the European war in 1917, but there was no evidence of this. In April of that year, influenza also spread in France, which was in the midst of World War I, and in China, May in Spain, and in June in the United Kingdom, all of which occurred one after another, but they were not serious.

The second wave began in August 1918 when a deadly flu occurred on a British ship that had just left the West African country of Lion Rock Republic, infecting 75% of the ship's crew and dying 7% before it arrived in the UK, as did several other ships. On August 27, the flu entered the United States and spread among dockworkers in Boston, and the outbreak of influenza in Brest, France, was also around the same time; Widespread transmission began in Europe and the United States in September and spread around the world within weeks.

The third wave of influenza began around the winter of 1919, appeared in many places, and gradually disappeared mysteriously from the spring of 1920. In Australia, influenza continued into August 1919 (winter in the Southern Hemisphere); In Hawaii, it lasted until March 1920.

3. Characteristics of the Spanish flu

An important phenomenon of this influenza is the high mortality rate among young adults. In this regard, there are two hypotheses: one is that the elderly population has experienced influenza, so it has antibodies, so it is more resistant to influenza. Second, young and middle-aged people have a better immune system, and in the process of eliminating foreign viruses, the fever and inflammation caused by them are also more serious; Overreacting by the immune system can lead to a cytokine storm, causing damage to tissues or organs; If it occurs in the lungs, it can cause the patient to have difficulty breathing and die.

The Spanish flu pandemic a hundred years ago was the deadliest epidemic in human history

Spanish flu

4. Spanish flu loss

By the spring of 1920, about 1 billion people had been infected and about 50 million to 100 million people died in the world's 1.8 billion people at that time. These figures are more than the total number of deaths in the First World War, which lasted 52 months. Its global average fatality rate is about 5-10%. The death toll in the United States is 675,000, which is fatal compared to the 0.1% fatality rate of ordinary influenza.

No epidemic that has occurred before or since has had such a high death rate, has led to the fact that the Spanish flu has been called "the deadliest outbreak ever seen by mankind".

5. The impact of the Spanish flu

(1) In 1933, British scientists Smith, Andrewes and Laidlaw isolated the first human influenza virus and named it H1N1, and since then people have known that influenza is caused by influenza viruses.

(2) The Spanish flu was one of the reasons for the early end of World War I, because countries had no additional troops to fight.

(3) After 1918, the world experienced three pandemics. 1957, 1968 and 2009. Both the H2N2 flu of 1957 and the H3N2 of 1968 killed one million people worldwide, compared with fewer than 300,000 in the first year of the 2009 H1N1 flu.

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