Why Is It Called Spanish Flu?
In 1918, a strain of influenza known as Spanish flu caused a global pandemic, spreading rapidly and killing indiscriminately. Young, old, sick and otherwise-healthy people all became infected — at least 10% of patients died. Although at the time it gained the nickname "Spanish flu," it's unlikely that the virus originated in Spain.
Transcript
00:00 In 1918, a strain of influenza known at the time as the Spanish flu caused a devastating
00:08 global pandemic.
00:11 The virus infected an estimated one-third of the world's population and killed at least
00:16 50 million people, making the 1918 flu the deadliest pandemic in modern history.
00:23 The outbreak began during the final months of World War I.
00:27 Historians believe the conflict contributed to spreading the disease because as troops
00:32 began to return to their home countries, they brought the virus with them.
00:38 In 2014, previously undiscovered records linked the 1918 flu to the transportation of Chinese
00:45 laborers across Canada in 1917 and 1918.
00:50 These laborers would spend about a week in sealed train containers as they were transported
00:55 across the country before continuing to France.
01:02 But reports show that several thousand laborers ended their Canadian journey in medical quarantine.
01:08 Canadian doctors didn't take the workers' symptoms seriously, and by the time the laborers
01:13 arrived in northern France, many more had become sick and hundreds were soon dying.
01:21 So why then is this pandemic called the Spanish flu?
01:24 Well, Spain was one of the first places where the epidemic was identified, but historians
01:29 think that's only because of wartime censorship.
01:32 Spain was a neutral nation and didn't enforce strict censorship of its press during the
01:37 war, so the Spanish press freely published early accounts of the illness.
01:43 As a result, people thought the flu started in Spain, and the name Spanish flu struck.
01:50 By the summer of 1918, the virus was quickly spreading to other countries in Europe and
01:55 the epidemic rapidly became a pandemic as it made its way around the world.
02:01 By August 1918, the flu had infected civilians in Canada and South Africa, and by September
02:07 it had reached the U.S. through Boston Harbor.
02:12 World War I caused a shortage of doctors in some areas, and many of the physicians who
02:16 were left became ill themselves.
02:20 Schools and other buildings became makeshift hospitals, and medical students had to take
02:25 the place of doctors in some cases.
02:30 To prevent the infection from spreading, physicians urged people to avoid crowded places or spending
02:36 time with people outside their households.
02:40 People were advised not to shake hands with others, to stay indoors, to avoid touching
02:46 communal things like library books, and to wear masks that covered their mouths and noses
02:52 when in public.
02:57 Schools and theaters closed, and the New York City Department of Health strictly enforced
03:01 a sanitary code amendment that made spitting in the streets illegal.
03:08 By the spring of 1919, the number of deaths from the Spanish flu were decreasing, but
03:14 countries were left devastated in the wake of the outbreak.
03:19 Pneumonia or other respiratory complications brought about by the flu were often the main
03:24 causes of death.
03:26 This makes it hard to determine the exact numbers killed by the flu, as the listed cause
03:30 of death was often something else.
03:34 The flu killed over 675,000 Americans in total.
03:40 The impact on the population was so severe that in 1918, American life expectancy was
03:45 reduced by 12 years.
03:48 Globally, the 1918 flu remains the most deadly modern pandemic to date, having killed an
03:53 estimated 1 to 3 percent of the world's population.
03:58 Two other flu pandemics occurred during the 1900s, killing an estimated 1 million people
04:03 each. The most recent flu pandemic took place in 2009 and killed around 200,000 people.
04:11 These pandemic flu viruses spread easily because they didn't closely resemble the seasonal
04:14 flu viruses circulating at the time.
04:16 When it comes to seasonal flu outbreaks nowadays, we have international flu monitoring systems,
04:22 antiviral medications, and annual flu shots that help to keep the rate of severe disease
04:27 and death in check.
04:29 Scientists are continually working to improve the annual flu shot, and someday, they hope
04:33 to roll out universal flu vaccines that protect against a wide array of flu viruses.
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