how did the spanish flu spread

After the Spanish flu infected lung cells it frequently led to overstimulation of the immune system via release of cytokines (a protein that invokes the immune response) into the lung tissue. Rural areas were hit particularly hard with limited supplies and nursing shortages. In 1993, Claude Hannoun, the leading expert on the Spanish flu at the Pasteur Institute, asserted the precursor virus was likely to have come from China and then mutated in the United States near Boston and from there spread to Brest, France, Europe's battlefields, the rest of Europe, and the rest of the world, with Allied soldiers and sailors as the main disseminators. Most people who caught the Spanish Flu reported very typical flu symptoms and recovered within a small number of days. Why Spanish flu was so fatal, especially to people in the prime of their lives, is what scientists are striving to understand, as TIME reported in the wake of Hong Kong’s 1997 avian flu outbreak. As Americans were celebrating victory in World War I in the fall of 1918, the masks on returning troops showed that the U.S. was losing another war against the so-called Spanish Flu. Spain remained neutral during World War I. The outbreak was caused by influenza type A subtype H1N1 virus. The name of Spanish Flu came from the early affliction and large mortalities in Spain (BMJ,10/19/1918) where it allegedly killed 8 million in May (BMJ, 7/13/1918). The Spanish Flu -- something that started as just regular flu in the US -- spread to the whole of Europe and eventually the world causing catastrophic damage to the lives of millions from 1918 to 1920 The Spanish flu also started as a ‘minor cold’, but in no time it completely took over and put immense loads on the medical systems in nations In Spain, the pandemic came right at the time of … So many soldiers were affected that it interfered with training and diverted necessary supplies and equipment from combat to caring for the sick. The Spanish flu then spread to Russia, India, China, and Africa. However, a first wave of influenza appeared early in the spring of 1918 in Kansas and in military camps throughout the US. Today, as the world grinds to a … How Did the Flu Spread in Canada? In the paper, the authors described their effort to sequence (i.e., characterize) the 1918 virus’s hemagglutinin “HA” gene. There is an element of a perfect storm in how the Gates bacteria spread. By mid-September, the Spanish flu was spreading like wildfire through army and naval installations in Philadelphia, but Wilmer Krusen, Philadelphia’s public health director, assured the public that the stricken soldiers were only suffering from the old-fashioned seasonal flu and it would be contained before infecting the civilian population. A second wave hit in the summer, starting in late August in Boston. As a result, San Francisco ended up suffering some of the highest death rates from Spanish flu nationwide. Even before the first case of Spanish flu had been reported in the city, health commissioner Dr. Max Starkloff had local physicians on high alert and wrote an editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the importance of avoiding crowds. This strain was so infectious that, by the end of October, it had spread from coast to coast and had a morbidity rate of about 28 percent. The Spanish flu pandemic coincided with World War I, which helped the disease quickly spread along with mobilized troops from place to place. Universal History Archive/UIG/Getty Images. Spain reported outbreaks to news organizations in the spring of 1918 when many countries involved in the war would likely be unwilling to broadcast the toll the flu was taking on their own troops and supplies. And in-flu-enza.” (1918 children’s playground rhyme) The ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic of 1918 was one of the greatest medical disasters of the 20th century. In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918. Just 72 hours after the parade, all 31 of Philadelphia’s hospitals were full and 2,600 people were dead by the end of the week. According to a 2007 analysis of Spanish flu death records, the peak mortality rate in St. Louis was only one-eighth of Philadelphia’s death rate at its worst. It occurred from 1918 to 1919, overlapping the end of World War I. Because the mortality rate was so high, churches and funeral homes were overrun. If the Spanish flu did not originate in Spain, where did it start? © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. The war was the perfect environment for viral spread, with soldiers living in military camps for training on U.S. soil and in the trenches in Europe. Researchers have since established that the Spanish Flu of 1918, now known as H1N1, originated from an avian strain that mutated to be able to infect … Some cities in Spain ran out of coffins, and the Spanish army was called in to help transport and remove the dead. The Liberty Loan Parade in Philadelphia, attended by about 200,000 people, contributed to the widespread outbreak of the Spanish flu in that city. In contrast, many nations have enacted travel restrictions to areas high in coronavirus COVID-19 infections with the purpose of preventing quick spread. People tried to play down the disease quickly spread along with mobilized troops from place to.. The first injections of avian origin a standard flu infection but developed pneumonia, which helped the dubbed! Your inbox emerged in 1918 during the winter and spring of 1918, many people got very,!, those soldiers injected with horse-infused bacteria moved quickly during those 10 months? Let ’ s to! 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