Spanish biography

Why the Spanishka became the most fatal flu in the history of Victor Cheretsky a hundred years ago in the world, an epidemic of the so -called "Spanish flu" was erupted in the world. But to Spain, this severe disease had only an indirect attitude. In China and India - millions. In total, the Spanish influenza or “Spaniard” was ill about millions - almost a third of the then population of the planet.

It is known that this pandemic, which is considered one of the worst in the history of mankind, had three phases. The first was observed in the spring and early summer of the year, the second - the most deadly - in October -December, the third - in the spring. And although the Spanish is quite well studied today, its nature still continues to cause disputes. The surviving epidemic "My older brother died in the epidemic.

Our nanny, our home doctor, almost the entire servant died," said DW Maria Dolores Del Carmen Rosalez, who was 2 years old in the year. But the tragedy laid out an imprint on our whole life. "From the stories of Father, Rosales knows that institutions, shops were closed in the city, mail, theaters and cinemas did not work, people were buried without funeral service and in common graves - many priests and graves also died.

Cheretzkij "Our doctor Don Federico was engaged in private practice, but voluntarily went to work in the hospital in the hospital of the Order of St. Francis of the Assisian," continues Maria Dolores. The hospital was crowded with dying. They lay in the wards, in the corridors, in basements, even in the yard. Monakhini doctors and sisters who looked after the sick worked without rest, trying to save people.

Many of them, including Don Federico, became infected and died.

Why the flu was called "Spanish" believes that the epidemic did not begin at all in Spain and this country suffered from it no more than others. As Madrid ABC notes, who devoted a series of articles to the sad anniversary, the flu may first appear in the USA, in Kansas - in a military camp, where recruits were trained in Europe to help the Entente countries - back in the year. According to another version, the pandemic originated somewhere in East Asia, either in China, or in Vietnam, it is not known exactly - and quickly spread throughout the world.

Why, then, the flu was called "Spanish"? The fact is, the newspaper writes that the epidemic coincided with the First World War. Censorship acted in the warring powers, and the press was forbidden to write about the scale of the epidemic - so as not to give pleasure to the enemy. Well, Spain did not participate in the war, and its newspapers were the main source of information about the disease.

So, the Europeans first consumed the expression, "the flu, which the Spaniards reported", and then simply "Spanish flu" or "Spanish". Cheretzkij however, there are other versions of the origin of the name. In France, for example, there were rumors that the Germans somehow "infected" the party of canned food, which the Spaniards supplied to the French.

The disease allegedly began with the Spanish canned food. The war and the pandemic of the rapid spread of the disease, according to ABC, "were especially facilitated by military operations." According to one version, the flu was generally brought to Europe by soldiers of the American expeditionary corps. Whatever it was, the newspaper notes, it is known that the main foci of the epidemic was the places of mass accumulation of the military - at the front and in the rear - in the barracks, in trenches, in lasarets, where the wounded were treated.

It was the military who became the main victims of the epidemic. Other wartime troubles - insufficient and poor -quality nutrition, unsanitary conditions, lack of medical staff - also contributed to the expansion of the scale of the epidemic. Meanwhile, the flu touched on all segments of the population. And in Russia, the famous film actress Vera cold died from influenza. The Parisian singer Edith Piaf was sick with the Spaniard, and her daughter died of this disease.

The ominous virus "The genetic structure of the H1N1 virus, the culprit of the tragedy, managed to recreate only in the year," said Nunes Sans, professor -epidemiologist at the University of Madrid at the University. According to him, only American colleagues managed this, who received material for studying from the remains of a resident of Alaska, who had been buried at one time in an eternal permafrost.

As for the symptoms of the disease, they are well known. People at first felt extreme weakness, it was difficult for them to breathe, the stomach was ill, the temperature rose. Then the face was blue, there was intra -heading bleeding and a bloody cough - the patients were literally choked with blood. On average, the disease lasted only three days - after which death occurred.

But often people did not have any pronounced symptoms at all, and the death was observed the day after the onset of the disease. Of course, in some cases when the flu did not immediately lead to death, but caused some severe complications, antibiotics would come in handy, but then they were not yet invented. Well, attempts to treat patients in large doses of aspirin not only did not help, but also led to poisoning with this drug.Meanwhile, the virus “mutated very quickly - at first it was made more aggressive and fatal, but, ultimately, weakened, and then completely disappeared,” the interlocutor of DW noted.