Branswell On The Spanish Flu Of 1918

 


# 2300

 

 

 

 

While I'm a blogger, I'm also smart enough to shut up and get out of the way when someone who really knows how to write, produces a must-read article.

 

 

 

 

Ninety years after deadly Spanish flu outbreak: millions killed, but few remember

 

Provided by: Canadian Press
Written by: Helen Branswell, Medical Reporter, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Sep. 15, 2008

 

 

TORONTO - The Allied Forces were gaining hard-earned ground in the late summer of 1918, carving a path that would shortly lead to an armistice for the First World War.

 

As those armies battled over the blood-soaked fields of Europe 90 years ago, another enemy was on the move. This adversary didn't choose sides. It didn't restrict itself to Europe. It didn't spare civilians.

 

By the time it was through rampaging around the globe, this assailant - the Spanish flu - had killed between 50 million and 100 million people, several times more than had lost their lives in the soon-to-be-concluded War to End All Wars.

 

 

Yet despite the scope of the death and illness, the fear and social disruption, amazingly - inexplicably - the history books made little mention of what is now viewed as the deadliest outbreak of infectious disease in recorded history.

 

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