Influenza caused by the H1N1 virus – commonly known as “Spanish” – decimated the world population in the years 1918-1920. Łukasz Mieszkowski, a young scientist from the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, tells about how dangerous this disease was, what was the state of knowledge about its causes and what treatment methods were used.
- The Spanish flu epidemic was one of the greatest pandemics in human history
- According to historians’ estimates, up to 100 million people could have died
- Has mankind learned any lessons from this crisis? – The experience of the pandemic and the potential lessons learned from it have been quickly pushed out of collective memory. They also did not become embedded in the cultural canon. Politicians and the public did not draw any conclusions from this experience, says the historian of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Łukasz Mieszkowski
- You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page
How dangerous was the “Spanish flu”?
Łukasz Mieszkowski: The Spaniard was one of the first global pandemics – an epidemic that spread throughout the world in a matter of months. Although it did not have such a high death rate as, for example, plague, due to the gigantic number of infected, the number of people who died from the disease was also huge.
A conservative estimate is 500 million infected and 30-50 million fatalities. Some researchers, however, claim that up to a billion people could fall ill, or 2/3 of the then inhabitants of our planet, and die – 100 million.
The four weeks between mid-October and mid-November 1918 was the period with arguably the most deaths in such a short time in the entire documented history of mankind. If the same proportions were to be translated into the modern human population, there would be 430 million victims – as many as all the inhabitants of the European Union.
What was its cause – where did this disease come from?
The cause was the H1N1 influenza virus, which most likely arose in the early spring of 1918 in one of the military bases in the north of France. This virus was the result of a rapid mutation – the so-called Antigenic jump – avian influenza viruses and several variants of human influenza from different parts of the world. The mutation took place in the pig’s body.
The newly formed virus strain was highly contagious due to its failure to be recognized by the human immune system and, due to common complications such as haemorrhagic pneumonia, dangerous.
- See also: New swine virus threatens people. It multiplies rapidly in the human lungs and intestines
Since the virus first appeared in France, why then the common name of this disease – “Spanish”?
The name of the disease is a coincidence. Unlike most European countries, Spain did not participate in World War I. The local press, unfettered by the limitations of war censorship, wrote extensively about the course of the epidemic, which was already raging across the continent at that time. The news of the plague was passed on by foreign correspondents, and it was through them that readers around the world were mistakenly believed that flu had just broken out in Spain.
What were the treatments for this disease back then and did they really work?
In 1918, doctors and microbiologists postulated the existence of infectious particles at least an order of magnitude smaller than bacteria, but that was the end of the knowledge of viruses at that time. As today, in the case of mild disease, proven home remedies turned out to be the most effective. Doctors recommended staying in bed and drinking plenty of fluids, preferably broth. However, in a war-torn, ravaged and starved Europe it was sometimes difficult to do that.
In the event of complications, the doctors of that time acted blindly, combining the latest achievements of pharmacology and technology. For example, they administered aspirin or recommended the use of the first, rather primitive, respirators in conjunction with bloodletting, a practice dating back to antiquity. The effects of this were often tragic and certainly many patients died not from complications, but from treatment – taking gargantuan doses of aspirin or bleeding to death.
Alcohol was a proven and relatively safe (though ineffective) remedy. The King of Norway, Haakon VII, even temporarily suspended the prohibition in force in the country and gave each of his subjects half a bottle of cognac.
Has the experience of the tragedy of the “Spanish” pandemic taught anything to mankind?
In the simple sense of this question – nothing, like a world war. The experience of the pandemic and its potential lessons were quickly pushed out of collective memory. They also did not become embedded in the cultural canon. Politicians and the public did not draw any conclusions from this experience. It was not known what causes this disease and how to treat it effectively. You could only try to survive it and hope that it will not come back.
However, is it possible to find any, even debatable, positive aspect of the “Spanish” pandemic?
The pandemic gave an impetus to scientists to further research on the disease. The discovery of the influenza virus in 1933 was a milestone on the way to unraveling the mystery of the Spanish woman. Interestingly, the discovery of the bodies of the pandemic victims in the permafrost in Alaska and Spitsbergen in 1997 and the undamaged pathogens preserved in their lungs made it possible to read the full genetic code of the virus from 1918 r.
Thanks to these achievements and the achievements of surgery, pharmacology and medical technology, humanity, at least theoretically, has a complete set of tools to effectively fight the flu and its complications, from vaccines to extracorporeal blood oxygenation systems.
- Strengthen the body during illness. Try a vitamin C supplement
You can read more about the course of the “Spanish” flu pandemic in Poland and around the world in the book “The greatest. The Spanish pandemic on the threshold of independent Poland ”by Łukasz Mieszkowski
This may interest you:
- Scientists: COVID-19 could claim more lives than a Spanish woman in 1918
- During the Spanish epidemic, the children returned to school. How did it end?
- History repeats itself? “We can treat the Spanish epidemic as a warning”
The content of the medTvoiLokony website is intended to improve, not replace, the contact between the Website User and their doctor. The website is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Before following the specialist knowledge, in particular medical advice, contained on our Website, you must consult a doctor. The Administrator does not bear any consequences resulting from the use of information contained on the Website. Do you need a medical consultation or an e-prescription? Go to halodoctor.pl, where you will get online help – quickly, safely and without leaving your home.