Robert Aceveds - The Spanish Flu--Real History of the Great Influenza of 1918. Similarities between the Deadliest Plague and the World Pandemic of 2020 and How to Avoid the Risk of Future Pandemics

The Spanish Flu

Real History of The Great Influenza of 1918. Similarities between The Deadliest Plague and The World Pandemic of 2020 and How to Avoid the Risk of Future Pandemics

Robert Aceveds

Copyright 2020 by Robert Aceveds

All rights reserved.

This document is geared towards providing exact and reliable information with regard to the topic and issue covered. The publication is sold with the idea that the publisher is not required to render accounting, officially permitted, or otherwise qualified services. If advice is necessary, legal or professional, a practiced individual in the profession should be ordered.

From a Declaration of Principles which was accepted and approved equally by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations.

In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

The information provided herein is stated to be truthful and consistent, in that any liability, in terms of inattention or otherwise, by any usage or abuse of any policies, processes, or directions contained within is the solitary and utter responsibility of the recipient reader. Under no circumstances will any legal responsibility or blame be held against the publisher for any reparation, damages, or monetary loss due to the information herein, either directly or indirectly.

Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

The information herein is offered for informational purposes solely and is universal as so. The presentation of the information is without a contract or any type of guarantee assurance.

The trademarks that are used are without any consent, and the publication of the trademark is without permission or backing by the trademark owner. All trademarks and brands within this book are for clarifying purposes only and are owned by the owners themselves, not affiliated with this document.

INTRODUCTION

T he Spanish flu was a deadly influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic. It infected 500 million people around a third of the world's population at the time in four consecutive waves from February 1918 to April 1920. Usually, the death toll is believed to have been anywhere between 17 and 50 million, making it one of the most deadly pandemics in human history.

In the USA (in Fort Riley, Kansas, Haskell County, and in New York City), France (Brest), the United Kingdom, and Germany, the first reports of disease and mortality were recorded. World War I censors suppressed these early reports to maintain morale. Newspapers were free to portray the consequences of the epidemic in neutral Spain, such as King Alfonso XIIIs grave illness. Those reports gave Spain a false impression of being extremely hard hit. This brought about the name "Spanish flu. Historical and epidemiological evidence is insufficient to establish the pandemic's geographic origin with certainty, with differing views as to its place.

Most influenza diseases kill the very young and the very old overwhelmingly, with a higher survival rate for those in between. However, The Spanish flu pandemic has resulted in a higher than expected mortality rate for young adults. Scientists give some potential reasons for the high mortality rate of the 1918 influenza pandemic. Some analyzes have shown that the virus is especially deadly because it causes a cytokine storm that ravages young adults' stronger immune systems. In comparison, a 2007 review of medical journals from the pandemic era showed that the viral infection was no more aggressive than previous influenza strains. Instead, malnutrition, overcrowded medical camps, and hospitals revealed that the virus was no more aggressive than previous influenza strains. Most victims were killed by this superinfection, usually after a very prolonged death bed.

The Spanish flu of 1918 was the first of two pandemics caused by the influenza A virus H1N1; the second was the swine flu pandemic of 2009.

While its geographical origin is uncertain, the disease was called Spanish flu from the pandemic's first wave. Spain was not active in the war, remained neutral, and had not enforced wartime censorship. Consequently, newspapers were free to report the consequences of the outbreak, such as King Alfonso XIII's serious illness, and these widely circulated reports created a false impression.

At the time of the pandemic, alternative names were also used. Similar to The Spanish flu name, many of these even pointed to the disease's supposed roots. In Senegal, it was named 'the Brazilian flu,' and in Brazil, it was named 'the German flu,' while in Poland, it was known as 'the Bolshevik disease. In Spain itself, the flu nickname, the 'Naples Soldier,' was adopted from an operetta in 1916, The Song of Forgetting ( La cancin del olvido ), after one of the librettists whipped that the most famous musical number of the play, Naples Soldier, was as catchy as the flu.

Other names for this virus include the "1918 influenza pandemic," the "1918 flu pandemic".