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Spanish influenza has been one of the deadliest pandemics in human history and in recent weeks has been used as a kind of measuring stick to assess the current effect of coronavirus.
From 1918 to 1920, H1N1 influenza Ignited 500 million others worldwide (nearly a third of the world’s population at the time), adding others from the remote Pacific and Arctic islands.
The 1918 virus also “new” (a new virus never noticed before), no one immune to it and its spread through respiratory droplets made it highly contagious, as did Covid-19.
But how does this compare to the devastation that the Covid-19 continues to cause today, nearly a year after reports of a mysterious flu-like illness began emanating from the Chinese city of Wuhan?
Here’s everything you want to know.
Where does the Spanish flu come from?
Despite its name, the first recorded deaths and Spanish influenza occurred in the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Since World War I is already hitting the global economy and causing great physical and intellectual tensions to others around the world, countries have chosen to censor their Spanish flu epidemics.
Spain remained impartial in the confrontation and newspapers were lazy to report the effects of the virus, adding the infection of King Alfonso XIII of the province.
This created the false impression that the virus originated in Spain and the affected country.
What pandemic killed the most people?
On September 29, 2020, the number of coronavirus deaths exceeded one million, an astonishing number of lives lost as a result of the pandemic, but how does this compare to Spanish influenza?
Of the two, the existing Covid-19 outbreak is the least deadly and Spanish influenza is the most expensive pandemic in recent history.
Spanish influenza is thought to have been up to 50 times fatal, with estimates of the number of deaths ranging from 17 to 50 million people.
There are more people than those who died in World War I.
Who did this affect?
Other older and more vulnerable people are at increased threat of serious headaches that can lead to the death of Covid-19, however, Spanish influenza had an abnormally higher mortality rate in young adults.
This is due to the fact that the virus triggered a “cytokine storm,” a physiological reaction that causes the immune formula to release an excessive amount of pro-inflammatory molecules, which in turn can devastate the body’s defenses.
Was there a wave of Spanish flu?
The Spanish influenza pandemic is used as a precaution against the underestimation of Covid-19, and those pushing for stricter blockade restrictions cite Spanish influenza as an example of what might happen if governments are wrong.
The Spanish flu experienced a momentary wave, which was certainly worse than the first because the virus was beginning to mutate and become stronger.
The symptoms were much more severe than those noted in the first wave: patients can die within days or even hours after contracting the virus.
It was also more contagious, and an epidemic of a bachelor parade in Philadelphia in September 1918 was the idea of being guilty of more than 12,000 deaths.
But he didn’t stop it there. A third wave struck in January 1919, shaking Britain with thousands of deaths.
While this wave was less fatal than the second wave, it was much worse than the first.
More than two years after the first reports of Spanish influenza, the world continues to fight it when a fourth wave emerged, with cases recorded until April 1920 in places such as Spain, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Switzerland.
What are the symptoms?
Most other inflamed people had only the typical flu symptoms: sore throat, headache and fever, especially the first wave.
However, during the wave of the moment, the illness was much more serious, confused through bacterial pneumonia.
In comparison, the main symptoms of coronavirus are maximum temperature, a new continuous cough and a loss or replacement of the sense of smell or taste.
Why is Spanish flu so severe?
As mentioned above, Spanish influenza gave the impression at the end of World War I, when the economies and resources of many countries had been crushed by global conflict.
This meant that medical camps and hospitals, which were already overcrowded after the war, were unable to meet the same old hygiene and patient care criteria, which encouraged the spread of the virus beyond expected.
Combined with less than enough situations in the first line of war for the army workers’ corps and the highest levels of troop movements around the world, the cases were best for the virus to spread.