Comparison of
Spanish Influenza And COVID-19

 

The fast spread and high fatality rate of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remind us of the first pandemic in the last century — the 1918–19 influenza pandemic.

What is Spanish Influenza?

The Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 influenza pandemic, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. Lasting from February 1918 to April 1920, it infected 500 million people – about a third of the world's population at the time – in four successive waves.

The first wave appears in Kansas of the United States, in the spring of 1918, was regarded as mild with the mortality rate not unusually high. The second wave spread from France to England and then on to Spain where it killed eight million people, and became known as Spanish flu.

The death toll is typically estimated to have been somewhere between 20 million and 50 million, although estimates range from a conservative 17 million to a possible high of 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

COVID-19?

The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. As of 8 May 2021, more than 156 million cases have been confirmed, with more than 3.27 million deaths attributed to COVID-19, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.

 

Similarities and differences between Spanish Flu & COVID-19:

There are many similarities between the present pandemic and the one that began in 1918, but the scale of the crises were quite different. 

·   The Spanish flu’s H1N1 and the COVID-19 coronavirus is that both are considered “novel,” which is to say, they are so new nobody in either era had any immunity to them, and it was highly infectious, spreading through respiratory droplets.

·   In 1918, health authorities urged people to wear masks to slow the spread of disease. Back then, they were made of gauze and cheesecloth, and those who refused to wear them faced a fine or even imprisonment in cities that mandated them. Still, many people resisted—as is happening right now during the COVID-19 pandemic.

·  Like the current pandemic, the 1918 flu had multiple waves—although the current situation is still developing.

·   In the case of both pandemics, there was no treatment at the time.

·  Victims of the 1918 influenza mostly died from secondary bacterial pneumonia, while victims of COVID-19 mostly died from an overactive immune response resulting in organ failure.

 

What were the symptoms?

Both Spanish flu and COVID-19 manifest as "influenza-like illnesses," with fever, muscle aches, headache, and respiratory symptoms most common, Dr. Bailey says. "One symptom that seems unique to COVID-19, and not seen in seasonal influenza—or, to my knowledge, Spanish flu—is loss of taste and/or smell," he adds.

World Health Organization (WHO) say difficulty breathing is a symptom that warrants medical attention, regardless of whether the cause is thought to be the flu, coronavirus, or something else.

Why did these diseases kill so many people didn't treatment exist?

Keep in mind that many deaths related to influenza are actually due to secondary bacterial infections, which today we treat with antibiotics, which were completely unavailable in 1918-19. And no vaccine available at those time. The situation is same in COVID-19.

 

Conclusion:

First, the patient population differs. Even though in the present review, we have proposed that the stage of COVID-19 can correlate to the second wave, we have not yet faced the human toll as caused by the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. 

For this phenomenon to happen, time is a limited resource considering such a vast population is affected. The role of “social distancing” can add up to the effect of herd immunity and may prevent transmission of infection. Yet no vaccines or specific drugs against novel coronavirus are available.