Spanish Flu. Any historians amongst you?

Influenza as well as many other diseases both attacks and weakens the immune system, it can also trigger auto immune conditions. Covid 19 has caused auto immunity in many patients which makes it even more difficult to treat, in the past viruses have mutated quickly, Covid 19 will decline, its the next serious strain that infects us we need to watch for.
Maybe it will be next year maybe in 10 yrs let’s hope we have remembered how to limit transmission and especially how to prepare with enough PPE supplies and how to lock down the care homes first to prevent the most vulnerable being victims.

Be prepared for the worst and hope for the best

There is also a link between being exposed to ‘flu in utero and the chances of developing schizophrenia in later life.

My father, born in late 1918 developped Spanish flu as a baby. Forty five years later, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Specialists at the large teaching hospital where he was treated suggested that his central nervous system had been compromised
Interesting Clairefontaine
This point was also made in a recent radio programme about the 1918-19 pandemic.
OP and those interested, are you following the recent Radio 4 series by Professor John Oxford on Friday mornings? It was in 3 parts, starting on 15 May, so now only available on “Sounds” (iplayer’s new name)
Very informative.

It was called Spanish Flu because Spain raised the alarm, not because it started there. All the other governments were trying to keep a lid on it so as not 'panic' the masses during an already difficult time.

Pale Rider Kindle edition is available on Amazon for £7.99.

It was first identified in Kansas USA in March 1918.

I don't think anyone knows for sure if it originated in China though and is a type of avian flu.

but it was brought to Europe by the American troops who were infected so it could not have originated in England or France.
It did kill a lot of young adults sadly most died of pneumonia

Never mind the sheer horror of those illegal Chinese wet markets, wild and often endangered animals, caged for consumption. Surely now is time for China to stop them. They seem in total charge of their population. SARS, Murs and now covid apparently came from them. So let’s stop at that.

My whole family had flu in the mid-late 50s. We were all ill at the same time and I have vague memories of my parents staggering from bed to bed checking up on us. My younger brothers were a toddler and a 6/12 baby, my older brother was 8. It must have been very frightening.

My nana lived on the outskirts of Leicester. (So do I but that's another story.) She said that she hardly ever went into the city centre during the flu but, when she did, it was like a ghost town. She said everyone was terrified.

Pretty much like now, really.

Great grandfather died of the Spanish Flu in 1919 aged 67. He was Headmaster of a village school, lost 1 son in 1916, no one else in the family became sick. Pre existing lung condition, photos show a strong man until the end x

Davida1968 that theory could have some fundamental truth. When my DH was ill with food poisoning (not the kind that makes you sick, more like really bad flu symptoms) he tried to soldier on until told firmly by the GP that he would not get properly better until he rested completely. That did work after just a few days.

My father, born in late 1918 developped Spanish flu as a baby. Forty five years later, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Specialists at the large teaching hospital where he was treated suggested that his central nervous system had been compromised by Spanish flu when he was a baby and that this later re-emerged as Parkinson’s. He died Aged 52. I mention it because only time will tell what longterm effects there will be for some.

Thank you. Will hunt down "Pale Rider".

My two baby uncles died of the Spanish flu. My mother didn’t die but was left with a weak heart. A good, but scholarly read is Pale Rider ( sorry, can’t remember the author) and the PBS America documentary is excellent

I was told that had an Uncle who died in his late twenties from the Spanish 'flu. Apparently, he was ill for many weeks and his wife was expecting their first child. The baby was born one evening and he died the following morning what a tragedy! Apparently, it did last for two tears with four 'peaks.' Everyone one went'wild' after the first peak which caused the second one!

I read somewhere that something like this happens every hundred years.

No snappy answers for you Lizbethann55 but I've just listened to a podcast
'David and Helen talk to the historian Dan Snow about the parallels for the current crisis. Is it like past pandemics or is it more like a war? ...' It doesn't answer your questions but is in the area (it's detailed stuff; I need to listen again and concentrate more!)

podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGFsa2luZ3BvbGl0aWNzcG9kY2FzdC5jb20vYmxvZz9mb3JtYXQ9cnNz/episode/NTg4ZWZhODY0NmMzYzQwMjNkOTA0ZGE2OjU4OGVmYmQwNmE0OTYzYzQxMDBlMGE4ZDo1ZWNlZDYxYWRiOTQ2YTU4OGM3ZDk3ODg?hl=en-FR&ep=6

There are some very good YouTube videos about it. Some by those who lived through it are very interesting.
One said that it was truly over in the US until 1922. Given that it almost certainly started in the US (probably Kansas) that means 4 years.

Since going into shutdown I heard a programme on Radio 4 which talked about this. One theory was/is that the old folk just took to their beds (and many survived, because while resting, all their body's "strength" could focus on fighting the virus) whereas all the younger people "soldiered on", working in their jobs/homes, for as long as they could, and thus succumbed.

My mother was 18 at the time but never mentioned it. I was dangerously ill with Asian flu in the 1950s.

This is a pandemic, but it isn’t a flu pandemic - how do we know this isn’t going to be more persistent like measles, rubella or chickenpox. Pale Rider is an excellent book with useful explanation of viruses.

There's an excellent book 'Pale Rider' by Laura Spinney. I had a copy but it went very early on when I've been putting books outside my house for people to take. It covers both the origins, and effects of the Spanish flu, and how it subsequently affected world events.

But that is the reason so many originate there, because of the wet markets.

These viruses are not, in fact, new. They have infected animals for thousands of years, if not millions. They can then mutate to be transmitted from animal to human, then mutate again so that they can transmit human->human.

But we were all alive for the other pandemics Asian flu 1957 and Hong Kong flu 1968 They also killed millions worldwide
I have no memories of them Certainly no fear has stayed in my mind and I was actually living in HK during the second pandemic we certainly didn’t lockdown or get constant news
I wonder why they all seem to start in China (and that doesn’t need answers like eating animals)

i guess like the present virus, after it has gathered speed and spread, it is difficult to determine where when it started.
i remember seeing an interesting, and rather horrifyingly detailed, programme prob on bbc4 tv, ?last year, which traced some very early outbreaks to an army training camp in ?kansas.
it had been thrown up or expanded quickly to cope with sudden large numbers of conscripts, and arrangements were not at their best. a medical officer noticed a pattern and wanted to delay embarkation to france for those units.
he could see the danger of sending such sick men on crowded ships into dingy dugouts.
how or why it started in that camp, if it did, ??, maybe someone had mingled with a chinese person, see above.
the descriptions of the conditions on the troop ships, from medics' notes made at the time, are truly appalling.
as noted above, it did not start in spain, but it was first reported in their newspapers, as others were subject to war-time censor.

What makes coronavirus so difficult is the long incubation period. You can be spreading it for a week or more without even knowing you have it. I thought from the start this would be the biggest challenge, people wandering around spreading it for such a long time.