Everything About 1918 Pandemic Spanish Flu, How Did It End And What We Can Learn From History

A month ago India begun the long and arduous journey to exit the Coronavirus lockdown and massive number of migrants who were stuck in different states finally reached their home states in special trains. Additionally the government has also released the rules and regulations to open shops in a phased manner.

These instances have naturally raised concerns of a possible spike in infectious amid debates over how the seasonal change would impact the flu as till now the hot summer months hasn’t made any difference to the virus while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has warned states to be prepared for the possible peak rise in cases around July- August.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 has no known treatment of vaccine because the news of the many trials being conducted and the sleepless nights put in by scientist to find a drug that will work has made that very clear.

The Covid-19 pandemic has severely affected the lives of people across the world leaving no geographical region untouched. We are coping up with the trying times but still imagining a life beyond the pandemic is far away. The pandemic has adversely disrupted the normal functioning of day to day life leaving no sphere untouched whether its medical, economical, psychological having an enormous toll on human life.

We often talk about time machines and now it feels it is becoming a reality day by day because the history has started repeating itself. The covid-19 pandemic isn’t the first we are witnessing. The best parallel one can draw taking Covid-19 into consideration is the Spanish Flu, one of the most infamous pandemics in the world witnessed it a century ago. And it was estimated that claimed around 50 million life.

Since history is repeating itself, there are important lessons to be learnt from the Spanish Flu if there is going to be further waves of covid-19 infection in order to ensure a less tragic outcome.

Spanish, German or Brazil?

When the Spanish flu broke out, people were fearful and quick to blame others. In Brazil people called the new disease ‘German Flu’, in Senegal it was called the ‘Brazilian Flu’ and in Poland it was called the ‘Bolshevik Disease’.

The flu was simply written about first in Spain, a country which remained neutral in World War 1 due to which newspapers in Spain were not subject to military censorship and they reported about the outbreak of the disease in Madrid in May 1918, the time at which the flu had been raging for weeks in the Belgian and French trenches but the name ‘Spanish Flu’ stuck.

Beginning of the Spanish Flu (1918 Pandemic)

The Spanish Flu started in 1918 between January and February in the United States when a number of people died after presenting symptoms of headaches, respiratory difficulties, cough and high fever. A few months later, patients in France, Belgium and Germany had similar clinical symptoms and in May, a religious festival in Spain caused an outbreak of the same mysterious disease.

Spread of the Spanish Flu

The initials cases of Spanish Flu was observed in US but it was Spain which got drastically affected by it. As per the historian Jaume Claret Miranda, the matters pertaining to Spanish flu got worse after when authorities didn’t cancel San Isidro festival even after repeated warnings. When the festival ended around May 22, the newspapers were flooded with news of people falling ill with the flu and hence the term ‘Spanish Flu’ surfaced.

No test or vaccine was available

As per the information of Lara Martinez sisters, when the Spanish flu was adversely impacting people around the world, doctors didn’t have access to the kind of medical treatment we have now. There was no proper vaccine, medicine or test available which could help the patients. Everyone was trying to come up with a solution to combat the flu.

Second wave of Spanish Flu (late 1918) was more deadly

The first wave of Spanish Flu started in January 1918 but was controlled within the army camps. However August 1918, can be regarded as the second wave that two months later turned deadly. October 1918 is regarded as the deadliest of all the months in the entire tenure of the virus. After causing havoc in the lives of the people, by November the flu almost vanished like it never existed.

The flu was just waiting for one wrong move by the authorities which they did on 11th November 1918. Assuming that the flu has vanished because of a drop in the number of cases, the authorities put their guards down on the 11th day of November. Permissions were granted for crowd gathering on the occasion of ‘Armitice Day’ on 11th November. Within three days, USA witnessed the second phase of the second wave which brought enormous destruction with it.

United States reported approximately 292,000 deaths, Copenhagen reported over 60,000 deaths, Holland reported more than 40,000 deaths and Bombay around 15,000 causalities.

The third wave of Spanish Flu in 1919

The third wave of the pandemic came up in January 1919 and it started off in Australia where it killed 12,000 and then it again came back to USA, UK, France and all over the world. This time the government had started focusing on the health of its citizens because World War 1 had ended. Widespread awareness programs were started about social distancing, quarantining, wearing masks and gloves. The third wave was as deadly as the second one though this time lesser number of people were killed due to these awareness programs. Around tens of thousands Americans lost their life during the first six month of 1919 due to Spanish Flu.

How Spanish Flu Ended?

By the summer of 1919, the flu pandemic came to an end as those that were infected either died or developed immunity. It took around two years of strict social distancing and quarantining to curb the flu. However the Spanish Flu hasn’t entirely disappeared from the world as the cases keep on emerging now and them but due to isolation techniques it never goes out of control.

Things to learn from Spanish Flu pandemic

Although similar to Spanish Flu, Covid-19 will vanish someday but the impact of Covid-19 will change our lifestyle pattern forever. The entire account of Spanish Flu should come across as a stark realization for us why lifting the lockdown early can cause havoc and how our impatient and reckless attitude can make us more susceptible to the virus. The most important learning is how simple precautions and measures of social distancing, quarantine, wearing masks and gloves can help us stay safe.

Many scientists believe that just like Spanish Flu we might never really get rid of Coronavirus, but with vaccination and treatments in the near future, we will learn to live with it.