The Beginning of the Spanish Flu

What Was the Spanish Flu?

    The Spanish flu was an extremely deadly strain of H1N1, a subtype of the disease influenza. The original outbreak was in Asia in 1918. From there, it spread quickly through Europe and was then brought to North America by soldiers returning from the first World War. It is estimated that the flu claimed the lives of about 50 million people, including 50 000 Canadians. It is considered to be the worst pandemic in human history. Although it is difficult to determine an exact date that it ended, it is generally recorded as having ceased in 1920 (Bailey, 2015).

Figure 3. An artistic rendering of the H1N1 virus. Adapted from “Swine Flu: Epidemic Enters Tenth Year,” by A. Pawar, (2018, October 20), Sanshodhan, retrieved from http://sanshodhan.in/swine-flu-epidemic-enters-tenth-year/. Copyright 2019 by Sanshodhan. Reprinted without permission.

Symptoms of the Spanish Flu

    The Spanish flu was extremely lethal. Many people were killed within days of contracting it. The flu operated in three waves. The first wave, which took place around the spring of 1918, was relatively harmless; symptoms included coughing, a runny nose, and a fever that usually lasted about three days. Victims of this first wave usually recovered quickly. However, the second and third waves were decidedly more harmful. Victims initially experienced the standard flu symptoms of the first wave, followed by muscle aches and shivering. The aches and shivering rapidly progressed into serious and often fatal lung complications. Often these complications included bronchopneumonia - the severe inflammation of the lungs. Ultimately, the result was that many people drowned in their own bodily fluids as their lungs filled with liquid (“1918 - Symptoms of the Killer Spanish Flu,” 2017).