Pandemic 1918. Deadly disease Spanish flu

The name “Spanish flu” (Spanish flu) arose for a very simple reason. Because Spain did not participate in the First World War.

As a non-belligerent country, it had relatively mild censorship in 1918. Something neither Germany, nor France, nor even the “foremother of democracy” Great Britain could boast of. Much less Bolshevik Russia, where freedom of speech was interpreted in a counter-revolutionary sense.

In general, the first publications about a widespread infectious disease appeared in Spain. Not surprisingly, the “new” flu was called Spanish. The disease is Spanish. Already in May, newspapers wrote that the number of cases had exceeded eight million. In Madrid, every third resident was sick. Including members of the government and even King Alfonso XIII.

The capital's shops and institutions were closing due to a lack of able-bodied staff. Tram service stopped. Madrid was paralyzed.

The disease deprived a person of strength and put him to bed with symptoms of an acute cold. But oddly enough, it was considered harmless. At first. Like, lie down for a week or two - and again, great!

New York, 1918. Photo: Wikipedia

In August 1918

Until this month, no attention was paid to the new disease. Europe had enough other concerns: the war was not over yet.

But it was in August, as today’s experts would say, that the genetic structure of the virus that causes the disease changed. Following the spring wave of the pandemic, the second, autumn wave began. Much more scary.

The breadth of its distribution was amazing. Victims with non-classical symptoms of the mysterious disease were identified simultaneously on both sides of the English Channel, in West Africa, in Russia, in the northern USA, in South America, in Japan, and in Australia. The second wave was followed by a third - at the beginning of 1919. Residual outbreaks of the pandemic, although not so dangerous, were recorded until the mid-twenties. Until now, in many countries, from America to Russia, shaking hands was considered a bad habit. There were posters: “Handshakes are cancelled.”

Epidemiological calculations made subsequently showed that at the end of the second decade of the twentieth century, at least 550 million people worldwide had contracted the Spanish flu. At the end of 1918, according to the Swiss sanitary services, in Europe for every three inhabitants there were two sick or recovered. This is an unprecedented scale; modern medicine has never encountered anything like it.

The colossal mortality rate of the Spanish flu was also striking: up to 20 percent. The true nature of the flu at that time remained unknown. There was not enough accurate data to separate it from other “cold-related” diseases. But it was clear that the disease was seasonal and developed under some external influence.

It is not without reason that in Germany, since the Middle Ages, influenza has been called influenza - from Latin this is translated as “influence.” At first, the astrological point of view prevailed: illness was influenced by the unfavorable location of the stars. Then the reason was “grounded”, linking it with the onset of cold seasons.

In general, influenza has been studied for centuries. Already by the beginning of the twentieth century, firm epidemiological conclusions had been made: in prosperous years the mortality rate was at most 0.1 percent, in unfavorable years up to 2.5 percent.

And here - 20 percent! This alone would be enough to suggest: under the guise of the flu, humanity received something else, much more terrible!

Graph of deaths in America and Europe from the Spanish flu in 1918–19. Image: National Museum of Health and Medicine | Wikipedia

The true plague of the twentieth century

The Spanish flu death toll of 25 million has long been considered “final.” But it was derived indirectly, based on population censuses conducted in the 1920s in many countries.

The census results were still in doubt. It was clear that they were inaccurate, incomplete, “mixed” with war victims, and heavily censored.

At the beginning of this century, an independent global historical and epidemiological study was conducted, the results of which were published in the American journal Bulletin of the History of Medicine. Here is the specified number of 50 million victims. Moreover, according to the authors, this is the minimum acceptable value. The real number of victims could be 70 or even one hundred million people.

The scale of the 1918-19 pandemic is now being compared to the Black Death of 1348, a plague pandemic that reduced the population of Europe by a third.

Concert hall in Oakland (California), used as a hospital during the influenza epidemic, 1918. Photo: Wikipedia

“German spies are to blame for everything!”

There was another non-classical feature of the Spanish flu, which increased suspicions that it was not just a disease, but either God’s punishment or a secret weapon. The unusual selectivity of the disease and the nature of the complications, which represented the main danger, were alarming.

Classic flu severely affects mainly older people. And the Spanish woman mowed down the young. In Europe at the end of 1918, the number of deaths between the ages of 15 and 40 was two to three times higher than the number of deaths over the age of sixty. The disease was deliberately targeted at conscription age (and there was a war going on)!

The main complication of Spanish flu is severe pulmonary inflammation, supported by the action of pathogenic bacteria. Critical phase: lung failure and death. The specific dark blue color of the skin of the deceased indicated acute oxygen starvation. Panic rumors spread about pneumonic plague, the bacteria of which were allegedly released by the Germans along with poisonous gas.

This was a “logical” explanation at the time. The deadly effects of bacteria were already well known, but almost nothing was known about viruses. And even more so about viral damage to the body’s immune system, which becomes “open” to bacterial infection.

Pulmonary complications leading to death “directly” pointed to the Germans. Gas attacks using chlorine and other toxic substances, launched by the German army back in April 1915, caused blindness, painful skin inflammation - and mainly, as one eyewitness put it, they “completely burned the lungs.”

In France, Belgium, and England there were persistent rumors that “the Germans, by releasing gas with bacteria, poisoned the fish in the Channel” (English Channel). The disease was transmitted to people through fish. However, not only rumors circulated, but also official conclusions. The archives contain documents similar to the report sent to the command by one senior US sanitary officer: “The infection could have been spread by German agents through poisoned canned food or poisonous gases released in the theater of operations, in crowded places, etc.” .

Seattle police during the Spanish Flu, December 1918. Photo: Wikipedia

Whose cow would moo? And whose pig would grunt

The version about the machinations of German agents was not confirmed. It also did not fit in with gas attacks, which the German command abandoned because of the low level of “mobility” of the new weapon and because of its inaccurate action (the gas hit soldiers on both sides of the front line).

By the way, in Germany the number of victims of the Spanish flu (over six hundred thousand people) was equal to the total number of victims of the main opponents on the Western Front - France and Great Britain. Was it really possible that Germany first of all “harassed” itself, and only then its enemies?..

General Erich Ludendorff, who had led all German operations since 1916, argued that it was the “all-encompassing influenza” that prevented Germany from taking advantage of the successes of the spring offensive of 1918, the last breakthrough before the collapse of the Western Front.

Objective epidemiological studies conducted since the 30s (they continue today) showed that the true focus of infection was not in Europe (and certainly not in Spain), but in America. Specifically: Haskell County, Kansas. The Fenston military camp was located here, where over fifty thousand military personnel were trained before being sent to Europe.

America entered World War I in 1917. The main transfer of expeditionary forces occurred at the beginning of 1918. The first wave of the “Spanish” flu reached Europe with American virus carriers! And the further lightning-fast spread “was due to the high concentration and mobility of the troops participating in the hostilities,” wrote the famous virologist and Nobel laureate Frank McFarlane Burnet forty years ago. The One-One World War did give birth to the One-Two War.

A military hospital in Kansas during the Spanish Flu. Photo: National Museum of Health and Medicine | Wikipedia

Enemy name - A/H1N1

A familiar name, isn't it? Kansas history contains several curious details which acquire special significance in the present era.

Influenza was transferred to the Fenston military camp from the local population. Loring Miner, a physician practicing in Haskell County, testified that at least three of his patients with symptoms of unusual influenza were drafted into the army in early 1918 and sent to Fenston. Already in March, over a thousand people were sick in the camp, 38 died.

The unusual nature of the Haskell flu was, according to Miner’s descriptions, the accelerated development of the disease (it was not for nothing that the Americans called the Spanish flu “three-day fever”), significantly more acute symptoms and a high probability of death. Miner appealed to the medical authorities, the Public Health Service (PHS), demanding that they take effective measures against the spread of the dangerous disease. But PHS officials ignored his appeal.

As a result, by August 2,800 people had died from influenza in the United States; in September, the number of victims jumped to twelve thousand.

The virus that caused the pandemic was only isolated in 1930. This was done by the American virologist Richard Shope at the Rockefeller Institute in Princeton. And by the way, he isolated the virus from pork meat.

And more recently, in 2005, geneticists and virologists reconstructed it. The virus belongs to the notorious A/H1N1 subtype, which affects ducks, turkeys, pigs, humans and some other representatives of the animal world.

When the virus first enters the body, it suppresses the immune system, which causes subsequent (unimpeded) penetration of lung bacteria and the risk of pulmonary failure.

Entry to the tram must only be done with a protective mask. Seattle, 1918. Photo: Wikipedia (CC0 Public Domain)

What is Spanish, what is “Russian”

Today, scientists have come to the conclusion that viruses of this “uncharacteristic” subtype have been “walking” through livestock and poultry farms in the northern states and the Midwest of the United States for a long time. Periodic outbreaks of the disease in humans occurred here, weakened, however, by the general dispersion of the population.

By the twentieth century, the situation had changed: dispersion disappeared, but the US presence in the world sharply increased. Residents of Haskell County fell ill with the flu after eating pork (or poultry) meat. The disease spread to the army, and the army rushed overseas...

In modern times, the A/H1N1 subtype caused the 2009-10 swine flu pandemic. Before this, there were swine flu epidemics in 1947 and 1951. And in 1977, the “Russian flu” epidemic broke out (as it is called in the West). It most likely originated from Northern China - but then spread through the territory of the USSR. Mostly children and adolescents born after 1957 were affected. The reason is that from that time on, the world was dominated mainly by the Asian flu (viral subtype A/H2N2). Young people have developed immunity against it. And there was no immunity against the disappeared (for the time being) A/H1N1.

The mechanism of spread of the second wave of the “Russian flu” in 1989 was approximately the same.

As we see, there is no end to the virus war.

Edvard Munch. Self-portrait after the Spanish Flu, 1919. Image: Wikipedia

In 1918-1919 (18 months), approximately 50-100 million people, or 2.7-5.3% of the world's population, died from the Spanish flu worldwide. About 550 million people, or 29.5% of the world's population, were infected. The epidemic began in the last months of the First World War and quickly eclipsed this largest bloodshed in terms of casualties.

The 2009 influenza pandemic was caused by a virus of the same (A/H1N1) serotype.

Picture of the disease, name “Spanish flu”

In May 1918, 8 million people or 39% of its population were infected in Spain (King Alfonso XIII also suffered from the Spanish flu). Many flu victims were young and healthy people in the 20-40 age group (usually only children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with certain medical conditions are at high risk).

Symptoms of the disease: blue complexion - cyanosis, pneumonia, bloody cough. In later stages of the disease, the virus caused intrapulmonary bleeding, as a result of which the patient choked on his own blood. But mostly the disease passed without any symptoms. Some infected people died the day after infection.

Egon Schiele (1890–1918), Public Domain

The flu got its name because Spain was the first to experience a severe outbreak of the disease. According to other sources, it is not yet possible to determine exactly where it appeared, but, most likely, Spain was not the primary epidemic focus.

The name "Spanish flu" appeared by accident. Since the military censorship of the fighting parties during the First World War did not allow reports of the epidemic that had begun in the army and among the population, the first news about it appeared in the press in May-June 1918 in neutral Spain.

Distribution, mortality rate

Through technological progress (trains, airships, high-speed ships), the disease spread very quickly throughout the planet.

In some countries, public places, courts, schools, churches, theaters, and cinemas were closed for a whole year. Sometimes sellers prohibited customers from entering stores. Orders were filled on the street.

Military regime was introduced in some countries. One US city has banned handshakes.

unknown, Public Domain

The only populated place that was not affected by the pandemic was the island of Marajo at the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil.

In Cape Town, a train driver reported the death of 6 passengers on a section just 5 km away. In Barcelona, ​​1,200 people died every day. In Australia, a doctor counted 26 funeral processions in one hour on one street alone.

National Museum of Health and Medicine, Public Domain

Entire villages from Alaska to South Africa died out. There were cities where there was not a single healthy doctor left. There weren't even gravediggers left to bury the dead.

U.S. Army photographer, Public Domain

They dug mass graves using a steam excavator. People were buried in dozens without a coffin or funeral service. In its first 25 weeks, the flu killed 25 million people.

The massive movement of troops from World War I countries accelerated the spread of influenza.

Death toll from Spanish flu

The overall result is that the Spanish flu killed 41,835,697 out of 1,476,239,375 people, which is 2.8% (the final figure is inaccurate as it does not include some countries.

Also, for some countries it is extremely difficult to determine the exact number of deaths).

Photo gallery

Start date: 1918

End date: 1919

Time: 18 months

Useful information

Spanish flu or "Spanish flu"
fr. La Grippe Espagnole
Spanish La Pesadilla

Famous victims

• Egon Schiele, Austrian artist.
• Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet. Edmond Rostand, French playwright.
• Max Weber, German philosopher.
• Karl Schlechter, outstanding Austrian chess player.
• Joe Hall, famous Canadian hockey player, Stanley Cup winner.
• Francisco and Jacinta Marto - Portuguese boy and girl, witnesses of the Fatima miracle (the third girl witness survived).
• Vera Kholodnaya, Russian film actress, silent film star.
• Yakov Sverdlov - Russian revolutionary, after the Bolsheviks came to power - Chairman of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee (VTsIK) - the highest body of the Soviet state.
• Klimova, Natalya Sergeevna Russian revolutionary.

Modern research on the virus

In 1997, the US Army Institute of Molecular Pathology (AFIP) obtained a sample of the 1918 H1N1 virus from the corpse of an Alaska Native woman buried in permafrost 80 years earlier. This sample allowed scientists in October 2002 to reconstruct the gene structure of the 1918 virus.

The epidemic wave of 1957 was strictly monoetiological in nature, and more than 90% of diseases were associated with the H2N2 influenza virus. The Hong Kong influenza pandemic occurred in three waves (1968, 1969 and 1970) and was caused by the H3N2 virus.

On February 21, 2001, a number of scientists decided to conduct a genetic study of the Spanish flu virus. They believed that the uniqueness of the clinical picture of the disease, the presence of various complications, the appearance of cases of the disease with a picture of general severe intoxication and, finally, the high mortality rate among patients with pulmonary forms - all this made doctors think that this was not an ordinary influenza, but a completely new form of it. . This point of view was held until the genome of the Spanish flu virus was deciphered at the end of the 20th century, but the knowledge obtained with such difficulty baffled researchers - it turned out that the killer of tens of millions of people did not have serious differences from the less dangerous pandemic strains of the influenza virus known today in any respect gene.

When the staff of the US Army Institute of Pathology in Washington (Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington) began these studies in the mid-1990s, they had at their disposal: 1) formaldehyde-fixed tissue sections of American military personnel who died during the 1918 pandemic; 2) the corpses of members of the so-called Teller mission, who tragically died almost entirely from the Spanish Flu in November 1918 and were buried in the permafrost of Alaska. The researchers had at their disposal modern molecular diagnostic techniques and the strong belief that characterizing the virus's genes could help explain the mechanisms by which new pandemic influenza viruses replicate in humans.

It turned out that the Spanish flu virus was not an "epidemic novelty" of 1918 - its "ancestral" variant "entered" the human population around 1900 and circulated in limited human populations for almost 18 years. Therefore, its hemagglutinin (HA), a cellular recognition receptor that ensures the fusion of the virion membrane with the cell membrane, came under “pressure” from the human immune system even before the virus caused the 1918-1921 pandemic. For example, the HA1 sequence of the Spanish flu virus differed from the closest “ancestral” avian virus by 26 amino acids, while the 1957 H2 and 1968 H3 differed by 16 and 10, respectively.

Another mechanism by which the influenza virus evades the immune system is by acquiring regions that mask the regions of antigens recognized by antibodies (epitopes). However, the modern H1N1 virus has 5 such regions in addition to the 4 found in all avian viruses. The Spanish flu virus has only 4 conserved avian regions. That is, he could not “go unnoticed” by a normally functioning immune system. Typically, pandemic researchers pay little attention to another important Spanish flu syndrome: cardiovascular disease. Rapidly increasing damage to the cardiovascular system, a sharp drop in blood pressure, confusion, and hemorrhages developed in patients even earlier than complications from the lungs. Contemporaries of the pandemic attributed these symptoms to the action of toxins from an unknown bacterial pathogen. But today it has been established that the genome of the influenza virus does not contain toxin genes with a similar mechanism of action.

The Spanish flu is a pandemic of influenza. The disease swept the entire planet in the first two decades of the 20th century. Influenza was already known at that time; a similar clinical picture was described by Hippocrates back in 412 BC. By 1918, the world had already suffered several epidemics of this disease, but it had never seen one as terrible as the Spanish flu.

The occurrence of the disease

It is generally accepted that the first cases of this pandemic were observed in the winter of 1918 in the United States. The Spanish flu disease migrated to Europe with American recruits who were mobilized for the First World War. The outbreak of the disease began in the spring and summer of 1918. Its victims were both the allies (Americans, French, British), as well as German troops and European civilians. During the period when wartime censorship tried to prevent the disclosure of any information about the diseases of soldiers, peaceful Spain trumpeted about a terrible disease that affected approximately 39% of the inhabitants of this country. This was the reason for the emergence of this particular name for the pandemic.

Three stages of disease spread

The “Spanish flu” disease rolled over the world gradually, in three “waves”. In the first, which was observed from March to July 1918, with a high degree of susceptibility to the disease, there were relatively few deaths from it. During the second, from September to December, there were the maximum number of deaths. In the third wave, from February to April 1919, the death rate from the pandemic dropped significantly.

Number of victims

During the year and a half of the “rule” of the Spanish flu, every fifth inhabitant of the planet suffered from the disease. According to various sources, from 2 to 5% of the world's population died. In the USA, the Spanish flu disease caused more than half a million deaths, in France - about 400,000, in England - approximately 200,000. In the countries of the East (Japan and China) - from 200 to 300 thousand each. Some tribes in Africa died out completely from the Spanish Flu. The number of Eskimos due to the disease decreased by 60%. According to statistics, the pandemic has affected Russia to a lesser extent. Perhaps the data is not accurate enough due to incorrect accounting due to the civil war occurring at that time. The level of development of the disease in Russia began to decline in May 1919, and by the summer there were practically no cases of infection.

Symptoms

“Spanish flu” is a disease, a photo of the causative agent of which is shown in the article. At that time there were no effective therapeutic agents capable of combating these pathogens. Those infected with the Spanish flu suffered greatly from its symptoms. The first symptoms in patients manifested themselves in the form of headaches, fever, and fatigue. In this state, people still assumed that everything would be fine, hoping that the symptoms were just an ordinary migraine or overwork. But when the patient’s skin gradually acquired a bluish tint, there was no doubt about the diagnosis. The later stage of the Spanish flu was characterized by bleeding in the lungs. Sometimes it was so strong that the person choked. Most victims of the pandemic died a day after infection. It was not possible to find out the origin of the virus then.

Starting at the end of the First World War and lasting only 18 months, it led to the death of 25 million people in the first 25 weeks alone. The disease turned out to be worse than the war.

For comparison, the “plague of the 20th century” - AIDS - had to “work” for a quarter of a century to achieve the same number of victims. It took the First World War four years of fighting to reach the 10 million mark. The final death toll from the Spanish Flu eventually reached 100 million.
So its pandemic (from the Greek - “the whole people”), provoked by the H1N1 influenza virus, remains to this day the “point of no return” from which world bacteriology has been counting the level of severity of all epidemics – past and future – for a century now.

Flu before the Spanish flu

The first mentions of pestilences, similar in symptoms to influenza, go back in historical chronicles to 876 AD. e. They were first described in 1173. Since the middle of the 16th century, “pulmonary catarrh” has almost never disappeared from epidemiological reports.

But until the end of the 19th century, it was not considered a contagious disease, that is, directly transmitted by airborne droplets. Aesculapians will find the nature of this illness “miasmatic.” And they will blame it on certain “harmful principles” (miasma), which spread with “fetid air”, which is capable of capturing vast spaces.

Influenza was not called influenza until the 18th century. And it’s called beautifully - “influenza”. In those days, she often flashed on the pages of novels. In specialized works, “influenza” appears during the pandemic years of 1732-1738. As a medical term, it was established in the wake of the next pandemic, in 1742-1743.

There are two versions of its etymology. The first is from the French name of the insect - “la Grippe”, whose masses filled Europe during the years of the spread of the infection and, as doctors assumed, “infused harmful properties into the air.” The second is a derivative of the German word “greifen” or the French “agripper”, which means “greedily grab.”

Killer of the Young

Despite the fact that almost 550 million people were infected, the Spanish flu killed selectively - mainly young people from 20 to 35 years old. Although medicine traditionally places children and the elderly at risk for pulmonary diseases.
Doctors considered the illness to be pneumonia. But this was a strange “pneumonia”. It proceeded quickly. Against the background of the scorching heat, the patients were literally choking on blood. Blood came from the nose, mouth, ears and even eyes. The cough was so strong that it tore the abdominal muscles. The last hours passed in painful suffocation. The skin turned so blue that racial characteristics were erased. There was no time to bury the dead. Cities were drowning in mountains of corpses.

In the British Isles the disease was called "three-day fever". Because she killed the young and strong in three days. And on the mainland it was dubbed the “purple death” for its bloody cough. By analogy with the plague - the “Black Death”.

Why "Spanish Flu"?

Contrary to logic, the birthplace of the “Spanish flu” is not Spain, but the USA. This type of virus was first isolated at Fort Riley (Kansas). In the New World it was defined as purulent bronchitis. The flu quickly spread to the countries of the Old, captured Africa and India, and in the fall of 1918 it was already rampant in the territories of Russia and Ukraine.

But the gears of war were still turning, grinding the leading players in the global carnage. Any information was reflected by the cap of military censorship. But Spain, which maintained neutrality, did not weave conspiracy theories. And when by May 1918, every third person in Madrid was already sick, and 8 million people were infected in the country (including King Alfonso XIII), the press exploded. This is how the planet learned about the deadly Spanish flu.

Soon, the military leadership of the Western Front was forced to make public the figures of “those who died from pulmonary infection in units of the active army.” And it turned out that the losses from the “harmless runny nose” many times exceeded the number of those who remained on the battlefields and were wounded. The disease especially did not spare the sailors. And the British fleet withdrew from hostilities.

A world without protection

Only 10 years later - in 1928 - the English bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming would discover penicillin. And in 1918, defenseless humanity had nothing to respond to the challenges of the Spanish Flu. Quarantine, isolation, personal hygiene, disinfection, ban on mass gatherings - that’s the whole arsenal.

Some countries have even fined and jailed those who coughed and sneezed without covering their faces. Those few who risked going outside acquired respirators.
“Black America” fought in voodoo rituals. Aristocratic Europe wore diamond necklaces because it was rumored that “the infection cannot stand the presence of diamonds.” The people were simpler - they ate dried chicken stomachs and onions, hid raw potatoes in their pockets, and bags of camphor around their necks.

Rumors and versions

The health services of the leading world powers were in complete confusion. The number of dead doctors was already in the thousands. The press looked for the causes of the epidemic - either in “toxic discharge from rotting corpses on the battlefields” or in “toxic fumes from exploding mustard gas shells.”

The version of German sabotage was also actively discussed, that “the infection was introduced through aspirin” produced by the German pharmaceutical company Bayer. But the “Spanish flu” affected the Kaiser’s men equally. So the “aspirin” version came to naught. But the version of the weapon that the enemies allegedly used against the Land of the Soviets was delayed. Since the victim of the “Spanish flu” (according to the official version) was the second person after the “leader of the world proletariat” - the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee Sverdlov.
A version of the laboratory nature of the “Spanish flu”, introduced “through vaccination,” was also voiced.

And suddenly, in the spring of 1919, the epidemic began to fade. In the summer, not a single case of infection was recorded. What is the reason? Doctors are still guessing. Believers classify it as a miracle. And modern science believes that, obviously, the human body has developed what we call immunity.

It is believed that the first cases of this disease occurred in the winter of 1918 in the United States. From there, along with American recruits mobilized to participate in the First World War, the virus moved to Europe.

In the spring and summer of 1918, the first wave of the pandemic began. There were victims among the Allies (British, French, Americans), Germany, and among the civilian population of European countries.

While military censorship prevented the disclosure of information about the diseases of soldiers, the press of Spain, which did not participate in the war, trumpeted with all its might about a terrible disease that affected 39% of the country's population. This led to it being called the “Spanish flu” or “Spanish flu”.

Three waves of the Spanish flu

The Spanish Flu hit the world in three waves:

• in the first (March-July 1918), with a very high incidence rate, there were relatively few deaths;
• the second (September-December) gave the maximum number of deaths;
• during the third wave (February-April 1919), mortality from the disease decreased slightly.

During the eighteen months that the pandemic ruled the world, every fifth person on Earth contracted the flu. According to various sources, from 2.5 to 5% of the planet’s population died.

The USA lost more than half a million people, France - 400 thousand, England - 200 thousand. In the eastern countries (Japan, China) the mortality rate also amounted to 200-300 thousand people each. More than 17 million Indians died from the flu. Some African tribes became completely extinct, and the number of Eskimos decreased by 60%.

Judging by the statistics, Russia was affected to a lesser extent by the Spanish Flu pandemic (perhaps due to the civil war there was simply insufficient recording). From May 1919, the incidence began to decline and by the summer it had disappeared.

Causative agents of the "Spanish flu"

At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was still no accurate information about the pathogen that caused the pandemic. The influenza virus was only discovered in 1933. It belongs to the myxovirus family. There are three groups of influenza pathogens - A, B and C. They differ from each other in their antigenic composition.

Virus A is the most variable, which is due to the constant change of surface antigens - hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). These antigens change independently of each other. It is believed that when both antigens change simultaneously, a new subtype of virus A is formed, causing a pandemic.

Since the forties of the twentieth century, attempts have not stopped to understand what kind of disease “Spanish flu” was. To do this, it was necessary to isolate the causative agent of the disease from the tissues of people who died from it. It was assumed that this was a new highly pathogenic subtype of the A virus.

This idea was suggested by:

• the contingent of those affected were mainly people 20-40 years old, while in other epidemics the elderly and children were most often sick;
• the uniqueness of the clinical picture of the “Spanish flu” (variety of manifestations, severe cyanosis, fulminant course of the disease, damage to the cardiovascular system);
• frequent and varied complications;
• very high mortality rate (25 times higher than normal for influenza).

Virus A(H1N1)

At the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, American scientists managed to isolate and reconstruct the causative agent of the Spanish flu. It really turned out to be the influenza A virus of the H1N1 subtype.

The shock to the researchers was that this variant of the virus was not new to humans at all. Research has shown that it has been circulating in human communities since around 1900. It took the virus 18 years to reach pandemic proportions. It has been suggested that the stress and malnutrition that accompanied the war contributed to the spread of the pandemic. But it is unlikely that these factors affected the African and New Zealand tribes, as well as the Eskimos.

Moreover, it turned out that the A(H1N1) virus circulated among pigs for at least 12 years after the disappearance of the Spanish flu, without causing outbreaks of the disease (virus A affects not only people, but also animals and birds).

Humanity encountered the same subtype of influenza virus in 1957 (Asian flu) and in 1968 (Hong Kong flu). There were deaths, but not on a pandemic scale. An outbreak of influenza of the same virus in Russia in 1977-78 went almost unnoticed.

The “bird flu” that recently made so much noise is also the A(H1N1) virus; he is considered to be the “great-great-great-grandson” of the causative agent of the “Spanish disease.”

Study of the Spanish flu genome

It was believed that the Spanish flu virus, thanks to a mutation, acquired the ability to cleverly camouflage itself from the protective factors of the human body. It turned out that there were no special camouflage areas in it. A normally functioning human immune system simply could not help but see and recognize it.

The version about the increased pathogenicity of the virus acquired as a result of mutation was also not confirmed - no changes in genes of this kind were detected.

Therefore, it is too early to consider the Spanish Flu mystery completely solved. Now the task is to study the genome of people who died from this disease. Perhaps it’s not the virus, but the peculiarities of the macroorganism’s immunity. There is hope that with the implementation of the international project “Human Genome” the answer to the question of what kind of disease “Spanish flu” will be found.