In the\nspring of 1918, Spanish flu was first detected in military personnel in the\nU.S. It has been dubbed the Spanish flu since it was believed to originate in\nSpain at the time. In reality, research published in 2005 indicates it\noriginated in New York. In World War I (1914-1918) Spain was neutral that is\nwhy is named as Spanish flu, which meant it could report on the seriousness of\nthe pandemic, but countries fighting the war censored details on how the\nepidemic affected their populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the\nworld has faced several major pandemics over the last 100 years, one of the\nworst was the 1918 influenza pandemic, the so-called Spanish flu. The 1918\nSpanish flu pandemic, the deadliest in history, which lasted for nearly 36\nmonths from January 1918 to December 1920, was caused by a bird-born H1N1\nvirus. It has infected around 500 million people worldwide \u00e2\u20ac\u201d about one-third of\nthe world’s population \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and killed an estimated 20 to 50 million victims,\nincluding some 675,000 Americans. The flu of 1918 was first detected in Europe,\nthe USA and parts of Asia before spreading quickly across the world. There were\nno appropriate medications or vaccines at the time to combat this influx of\nkiller flu. Citizens were forced to wear masks, classrooms, theatres and businesses\nwere shut down and bodies stacked up in improvised morgues until their deadly\nglobal march ended with the virus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the span\nof five days, in a village with about 80 adult residents, 72 adults lost their\nlives to the infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once\ngovernment leaders understood the risk, cities took aggressive steps to try to\nstop the disease from spreading. Schools, theatres, and other public places of\nmeeting were forced to close, and the U.S. government allocated an enormous\namount to curb the spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n