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Viewpoint: The deadly disease that killed more people than WW1
bbc ^ | 10-12-2014

Posted on 10/13/2014 10:50:00 AM PDT by Citizen Zed

A deadly illness took hold as WW1 ended and killed an estimated 50 million people globally. But the horror made the world aware of the need for collective action against infectious diseases, says Christian Tams, professor of International Law at the University of Glasgow.

On Armistice Day, 1918, the world was already fighting another battle. It was in the grip of Spanish Influenza, which went on to kill almost three times more people than the 17 million soldiers and civilians killed during WW1.

Dangerous diseases only reach the headlines if there is a risk of a pandemic, like the current Ebola outbreak. Other than that they are the largely ignored global killers, but every year they kill many more people than wars and military conflicts.

In 1918 the world faced a pandemic. Within months Spanish Flu had killed more people than any other illness in recorded history. It struck fast and was indiscriminate. In just one year the average life expectancy in America dropped by 12 years, according to the US National Archives.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: spanishflu; ww1
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To: SoCal Pubbie

Exactly right...at least according to this book as well
http://smile.amazon.com/Great-Influenza-Deadliest-Pandemic-History/dp/0143036491/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413227369&sr=1-1&keywords=the+great+influenza


21 posted on 10/13/2014 12:08:47 PM PDT by gorush (History repeats itself because human nature is static)
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To: Citizen Zed
Another Flu outbreak like that would sure cut pension costs in the public and private sectors.

Another flu outbreak like that one would kill our economy and probably contributed to the great depression.

The old people and kids survived, the 20-40 year olds died.

22 posted on 10/13/2014 12:09:19 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Proud Infidel, Gun Nut, Religious Fanatic and Freedom Fiend)
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To: gorush

Read that one.


23 posted on 10/13/2014 12:14:44 PM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
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To: Capt. Tom

They literally had bring out your dead carts in Philly and Boston IIRC.

Grandmother (still alive, last G left bless her) on my Mom’s side lost 4 family members in the VA/W.VA mountains. The hill areas had a LOT of uncounted dead too...


24 posted on 10/13/2014 12:27:37 PM PDT by Axenolith (Government blows, and that which governs least, blows least...)
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To: Citizen Zed

It killed my grandfather.


25 posted on 10/13/2014 12:45:26 PM PDT by Rummyfan (Iraq: it's not about Iraq anymore, it's about the USA!)
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To: oh8eleven

My paternal grandfather got it just before he was due to go to France. In his case it may have saved his life.


26 posted on 10/13/2014 12:48:30 PM PDT by Himyar (Sessions: the only real man in D.C.)
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To: Himyar
My paternal grandfather got it just before he was due to go to France. In his case it may have saved his life.
There was weaker, much less fatal strain that hit in the spring of 1918. Exposure to that may have given people enhanced immunities to the fatal version.
27 posted on 10/13/2014 1:00:06 PM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: wbill

“I recently toured the family cemetary with my father, who is the resident expert genealogist.

It was not uncommon in the cemetary to see entire families wiped out within a few days of each other. A couple were from the Spanish flu, a double handful more, Dad said, were from smallpox and cholera.”

My Dad’s sister disappeared at the same time. She was supposedly in the San Francisco area, as a new arrival from the southwest. My Dad and the Aunt who raised him, his brother and sister tried to find her and contact her. They never did and gave up about a decade after she disappeared.

My personal theory was she got the flu and died without relatives or relatives in the area and was buried in a mass type of grave or a pauper’s type of grave.

I tried some genealogy searches re cemeteries and death notices, and I never found any data listing her.


28 posted on 10/13/2014 1:52:33 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (I, Barrack E Obolabama support the left wing war on Ebola. Fox News and Republicans will fight me.)
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To: Capt. Tom

“Many years ago I worked with a gentleman who at that time in 1918 had a job making coffins.

He told me how wide spread the deaths were and how they came so fast. It was hard for me to grasp it at that time (circa late 50s)-Tom.”

My mother’s family was in the same geographical areas of my Dad’s family, and they lost no one in that epidemic. They were isolated on a small farm, miles from the nearest small town. They were basically self sufficient re food and water. They just stayed at home and kept the kids home from school. My mother’s dad, had 3 brothers in fairly large towns/cities, and they lost no one to the flu epidemic. Again, they kept away from others and stopped their kids from going to school. Also, they had no one in the military at that time.

My wife’s families on both sides in small towns in the midwest had zero casualties, and interestingly no one in the military at that time. She had a lot of relatives living at that time.


29 posted on 10/13/2014 2:03:13 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (I, Barrack E Obolabama support the left wing war on Ebola. Fox News and Republicans will fight me.)
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