The Spanish Flu

BackGround

• The Spanish Flu of 1918 to 1919 infected an estimated 500 million people and killed about 20 to 50 million people.
• In many cases, the flu infected the lungs and caused pneumonia.

BackGround

• The regular flu mostly kills young children and elderly, but the Spanish Flu mainly killed strong young adults which is what made it so devistating. This happened because it caused the immune systems to over react.
• The flu can be spread through the air making it highly contagious.

Early On

• The Spanish Flu probably started in China but that is unknown. When the first case of the Spanish Flu in the US was reported in Kansas, most people did not expect it to be as bad as it turned out.
• Many people say that the flu could have been caused from chemicals or harmful gases. The one thing we know is that it started in animals and spread to humans.

Affect on Military Members

• When the military members came back from WWI, most of the hospitals were already full with flu patients, so there was nobody to care for their wounds.
• Many times students at universities were asked to help the wounded military men and women.

Medicine

• In the early 1900s there were no common medicines like we have today and nothing that could cure the Spanish Flu.

Flu Facts

• Spain gave the Spanish Flu its name because it was one of the first countries to be hit by the this version of the flu.
• There were 3 waves of the flu. The first wave was the least deadly, while the second wave was when most of the people with the disease died.
• The flu killed more people then all of the 20th century wars combined.

It effected everybody's everyday live's. It even became a popular jump rope song.I had a little bird, it's name was Enza, I opened up the window and in-flu-enza

In the end

• In the end, an estimated 20-40% of the world's population were infected by the Spanish Flu.
• That means at least 1 out of every 5 people on earth was infected.
• An estimated 50 million people died worldwide, 675,000 in the US. This would be roughly equal to 12 current DSMS 6th graders dying from the flu

Compared to Modern Day

• In modern day Africa we have Ebola, and that had a similar effect on people as the Spanish Flu did.
• In Africa, Ebola took over almost everybody's everyday life like the Spanish Flu did.

ABout Ebola

• The first cases of Ebola showed up in Africa in 1976. Since then there have been about 23,200 cases of Ebola all around the world. Only 8 cases have occurred in the U.S. and only one of those died.
• Ebola does not have a real vaccine to cure it but requires extensive care and blood transfusion along with very educated doctors to treat .

ABout Ebola

• Ebola kills 90% of the people infected by it.
• The first widespread epidemic of Ebola was in 2013 and has lasted 2 years and counting.

How Ebola is spread

• Ebola is spread by direct contact with a contaminated person's bodily fluids,

Spanish Flu & Ebola Similarities

• Both of them could lead to death
• No known cure at the time
• Both had a single origin point

SPanish Flu & EBola differences

• The Spanish Flu infected people in almost every country but Ebola is mostly contained in Africa.
• Ebola has a higher death rate then the Spanish Flu.
• The Spanish Flu can be spread through the air and Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids.

Conclusion:
Both of the outbreaks are serious. Ebola is more deadly however it was harder to catch and we have more advanced medical knowledge so that the risk is reduced. The Spanish Flu had a much greater impact on the world due to the high number of people that it effected.

Bibliography

• http://www.history.com/topics/1918-flu-pandemic
• http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/12/1/pdfs/05-0979.pdf
• http://www.flu.gov/pandemic/history/

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