Spanish flu - Reflexions

Spanish flu

Name given to a flu pandemic caused by a highly virulent viral strain of H1N1. The pandemic appears to have broken out in the USA at the beginning of 1918. The virus progressed at lightning speed: in barely seven days, different sources of infection were found throughout America; in three months, all the continents were affected. It is estimated that a billion people contracted the disease (i.e. almost half the world’s population at the time) and approximately 60 million died. This pandemic, which caused more deaths in several months than the First World War in four years, is undoubtedly the most virulent humanity has ever known in such a short space of time. The nickname “Spanish flu” was given to this disease because the King of Spain, Alfonso XIII, contracted the disease very early on in Europe, not to mention 70% of the population of Madrid in just three days!