3.9 | The Spanish Flu, 1918-1919
At its peak, a third of all
people on the globe were impacted by the Spanish flu, regarded as the
deadliest pandemic in the history of civilization. The Spanish flu is
believed to have killed 50 million people, or around 2.5% of the
world’s population. The disease was so severe that it caused a drop in
life expectancy in England and Wales from 54 years (before the epidemic)
to 41 years in 1920. The two subsequent, extremely large waves of the
Spanish flu resulted in a W-shaped distribution curve for morbidity and
mortality. Subsequent bacterial bronchopneumonia, for which there was no
efficient antibiotic therapy at that time, frequently resulted in death.
The Spanish flu spread during World War I, when several infected
soldiers were sent far away and confined to small spaces in military
bases or areas. School closures, bans on big gatherings, and quarantines
(what is today referred to as ”social distancing”) were all used as
public health responses to the Spanish flu. refer to how economies
collapsed in nations with high death rates. According to , the pandemic
in the US caused a historic economic depression and killed 0.5–0.8% of
the population.
Table 7 shows the influenza mortality in British India’s major regions
until November 30, 1918. The Government’s Sanitary Commissioner
estimated that there were over five million death tolls throughout
British India up to the end of November 1918, with an additional one
million in the princely kingdoms. Demographers revised the real totals
to be 10-14 million fatalities, or four percent of the 1911 population.
The severe drought and influenza pandemic of 1918 significantly impacted
economic fortune in India. Table 8 shows an international comparison of
flu death rates during the Great Influenza Pandemic 1918-1920.