The Spanish Flu 1918 1919 The Spanish Flu

The Spanish Flu 1918 -1919

The Spanish Flu • We’ve talked about the many deaths suffered during WWI, but the Spanish Flu caused more Canadian deaths than the entire war • One of the worst flu epidemics known Spanish Flu Virus

What was the Spanish Flu? • An unusually severe and deadly Influenza A virus strain of subtype H 1 N 1 (sound familiar? ) • Did not originate from Spain • Its source was among the new recruits pouring into the American Army camps after the entry of the U. S. into WWI • By 1918, spread to Canadian troops serving in France

• Quickly moved from the military to civilian population • Its spread was extremely rapid, in part due to the number of soldiers returning home to all parts of the world at the end of the war • As many as 1 in 4 people worldwide contracted the Spanish Flu

Albertan farmers wearing masks to protect themselves from the flu (1918)

Policemen wearing masks provided by the American Red Cross in Seattle (1918 )

Street car conductor not allowing passengers aboard without a mask (1918)

Red Cross workers remove a flu victim from his home (1918).

A makeshift hospital ward during the Spanish Flu. Patients are set up in rows of beds on an open gallery, separated by hung sheets. A nurse wears a cloth mask over her nose and mouth (1919).

Spanish flu victims being buried. North River, Labrador, Canada (1918).