Spanish Influenza In 1918

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In 1918, a sickness known as the Spanish Influenza affected approximately 500,000,000 people and killed about 50,000,000. It was mainly found in the United States, Asia, and Europe, becoming the deadliest pandemic in modern history. The flu was first observed in Europe where 8,000,000 deaths were recorded in Spain alone in a time span of just 2-3 months, earning the name the “Spanish Influenza”. No effective medicine or vaccine had existed at the time, in fact, doctors and scientists believed that it was caused by a bacteria instead of a virus. There were three waves of this illness, and the first started in our home state.
Influenza is a virus that infects the respiratory system, your body builds a defense system by making antibodies, which …show more content…
When it hit, it was very unexpected because one minute a person would be perfectly healthy and within the next hour or two, they could have a fever of 105 degrees Fahrenheit. People everywhere, in schools, businesses, and even just out on the streets, wore masks to try to prevent themselves from catching the nasty virus. On September 28, 1918, there was a “Liberty Loan” parade held in Philadelphia. In just days, wave number two of the influenza had spread throughout the city as an effect to that crowded event. Before the month of October was over, 12,000 people had been killed in the city of Philadelphia, and the death toll in the U.S. was now at 175,000, all in a matter of one month. The third wave of the pandemic lingered and lasted from January of 1919 until June; it occurred in mostly the same places as the first, killing many more.
The 1918 Flu Pandemic happened during World War 1, which killed about 17 million men and wounded 20 million, but when have you ever heard stories from your grandparents about the sickness that killed 50 million men, women, and children and infected 500 million? We are so devastated about all the men killed in action, and it is very, very sad and heartbreaking, but most of those men were volunteers. All of the people killed by the virus were innocent people dying a little more everyday hoping and praying that they would eventually
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