Influenza Pandemic 1918-1920

[Kishinev93]

If you’re enjoying watching BBC One’s The Village, which last night included a storyline on the influenza pandemic of 1920 you may be interested in this youtube video from Sheffield Archives and Local Studies on the impact of the pandemic on Sheffield http://youtu.be/eEEqWcME55g

[loish]

Very good, I'm yet to watch this weeks episode of the village but have watched the rest.

[lysander]

Mimosa was forbidden in my Grandmother's house....She believed that the Spanish flu came into the country with the flower. As a child in the 1950.s the talk about Spanish flu was as frightening as talk about the recent war!

[History dude]

The actual cause of it is still under debate, but it was I believe transmitted from infected animals that were brought over to feed the troops in France during WW1. It's clear chickens and the like were kept in very unsanitary conditions. Ever since man started farming animals for food production bugs and germs have moved from the animals to man. Very quickly a doctor near the very same army camp reported men dying of the flu. It spread all over the world, killing more people then those that died fighting. More soldiers died of it then died in battle.

There are no monuments to them, but they are just as victims of that war as those that died in it.

[lysander]

Evidence from frozen victims shows that it was caused by a strain of H1N1 virus. It affected some 500 million people across the globe and was especially unusual as it gravely affected young and healthy adults, whose strong immune system was, paradoxically, the cause of their deaths.

Because of censorship the only country where reports weren't censored was Spain...hence the Spanish flu of legend. ( the Allies and the Central Powers all suffered outbreaks but these were "minimised" in order to keep up civilian morale!)