The Spanish flu was a disease caused by a mutation of the flu virus that led to the death of more than 50 million people, affecting the entire world population between the years 1917 and 1918, during the first world war.
Initially, the Spanish flu only appeared in Europe and the United States, but in a few months it spread to the rest of the world, affecting India, Southeast Asia, Japan, China, Central America and even Brazil, where it killed more 10, 000 people in Rio de Janeiro and 2, 000 in São Paulo.
The Spanish flu had no cure, but the disease disappeared around 1918, with no more cases of the disease recorded since that time.
Spanish flu symptoms
The Spanish flu virus had the ability to affect various systems of the body, that is, it could cause symptoms when it reached the respiratory, nervous, digestive, renal or circulatory systems. Thus, the main symptoms of the Spanish flu include:
- Muscle and joint pains; Intense headache; Insomnia; Fever above 38º; Excessive tiredness; Difficulty breathing; Feeling of shortness of breath; Inflammation of the larynx, pharynx, trachea and bronchi; Pneumonia; Abdominal pain; heartbeat; Proteinuria, which is the increased concentration of protein in the urine; Nephritis.
After a few hours of onset of symptoms, patients with Spanish flu could have brown spots on their faces, bluish skin, coughing up blood and bleeding from the nose and ears.
Cause of Spanish flu
The Spanish flu was caused by a random mutation in the flu virus, H1N1, which was easily transmitted from person to person through contact, coughing and air.
How the treatment was done
A treatment for Spanish flu has not been discovered, and it was only advisable to rest and maintain adequate nutrition and hydration. Thus, few patients were cured, depending on their immune system.
As there was no vaccine at the time against the virus, the treatment was done to combat the symptoms and was usually prescribed by the doctor aspirin, which is an anti-inflammatory used to relieve pain and lower the fever.
The mutation of the common influenza virus of 1918 is similar to that which emerged in cases of avian influenza (H5N1) or swine flu (H1N1). In these cases, as it was not easy to identify the organism that was causing the disease, it was not possible to find an effective treatment, making the disease fatal in most cases.
Prevention of Spanish flu
In order to prevent the transmission of the Spanish flu virus it was recommended to avoid being in public places with a lot of people, such as theaters or schools, and for this reason, some cities were abandoned.
Nowadays the best way to prevent the flu is through annual vaccination, since viruses mutate randomly throughout the year in order to survive. In addition to the vaccine, there are antibiotics, which appeared in 1928, and which can be prescribed by the doctor to prevent the occurrence of bacterial infections after the flu.
It is also important to avoid very crowded environments, as the flu virus can pass from person to person easily. Here's how to prevent the flu.
Watch the following video and understand how an epidemic can arise and how to prevent it from happening:
