Disease "Spaniard" - a terrible epidemic of the 20th century

Spanish disease - pandemic flu.Ailment swept the entire planet in the first two decades of the 20th century. At that time, the flu was already known; Hippocrates described a similar clinical picture as early as 412 BC. By 1918, the world had already endured several epidemics of this disease, but had not seen such a scary one as the “Spaniard”.

The occurrence of the disease

It is believed that the first cases of this pandemicobserved in the winter of 1918 in the United States. In Europe, the disease "Spaniard" migrated with American recruits who were mobilized for the First World War. The outbreak of the disease began in the spring and summer of 1918. His victims were as allies (Americans, French, British), and the German troops, civilians in Europe. In a period when wartime censorship tried to prevent the disclosure of any information about soldiers' diseases, peaceful Spain trumped about a terrible disease that struck about 39% of the inhabitants of this country. This was the reason for the emergence of just such a name of a pandemic.

Three stages of the spread of the disease

The disease "Spaniard" rolled on the world gradually,three "waves". In the first, which was observed from March to July 1918, with a high degree of susceptibility to the illness of deaths from it was relatively little. During the second, from September to December, the death rate was the maximum. At the third wave, from February to April 1919, the mortality rate from the pandemic dropped significantly.

The number of victims

For one and a half years of the "rule" of "Spanish" in everythingthe world suffered illness every fifth inhabitant of the planet. According to various data, from 2 to 5% of the population of the Earth died. In the US, the disease “Spaniard” caused more than half a million deaths, in France - about 400,000, in England - about 200,000. In the countries of the East (Japan and China) - from 200 to 300 thousand in each. Some tribes in Africa died out completely from the "Spaniard". The number of Eskimos from the disease decreased by 60%. According to statistics, the pandemic to a lesser extent, covered Russia. Perhaps, the data are not accurate enough due to incorrect accounting due to the civil war at that time. The level of development of the disease in Russia began to decline in May 1919, and by the summer of infection there were practically no infections.

Symptomatology

"Spaniard" - a disease whose photo of the pathogenshown in the article. At that time, there were no effective therapeutic agents capable of overcoming these pathogens. Those infected with “Spaniard” suffered greatly from its symptoms. The first signs of influenza in the diseased manifested themselves in the form of headaches, fever, fatigue. In this state, people still assumed that everything would be okay, hoping that the symptoms were just a normal migraine or overwork. But when the patient's skin gradually acquired a bluish tint, there was no doubt about the diagnosis. The later stage of the “Spanish flu” was characterized by bleeding in the lungs. Sometimes it was so strong that the person choked. Most of those affected by the pandemic died a day after infection. To find out the origin of the virus then failed.