Spotlight On: The Spanish Flu

 

Also known as the 1918 influenza pandemic, the Spanish Flu was an incredibly fatal strain of the flu which spread across the world from an unknown source taking the lives of millions of people. This particular strain of flu was most prevalent in young, typically healthy, individuals, nearly the polar opposite of the common flu which affects the very young and elderly populations. Of the 500 million people infected world wide, between 50 and 100 million died. The "Spanish Flu" nickname resulted from Spain's choice to not censor news of the outbreak, and from the Spanish King, Alfonso XIII, contracting the disease resulting in large scale media coverage of his struggle with the illness, not because the flu originated in Spain.