1918: The Year the Spanish Flu Reached Cebu

As the Great War was raging in Europe and about to reach its final few battles to “end all future wars.” Life in Cebu seems far affected by the horrors of war and destruction yet there is a pandemic that has already spread to different parts of the world and about to wreak havoc on the populace.

Even before the Spanish Flu has reached our shores, cholera and influenza have already ravaged the island well before the first deaths were recorded. It was only a decade removed when the Filipino-American War caused a lot of death and destruction not only because of the fighting but also because the Americans have implemented “concentration camps” in order to separate the rebels away from the civilians. It also resulted in the rise of cholera epidemics.

The deadly influenza pandemic was caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. Lasted from February 1918 to April 1920, it infected 500 million people or about a third of the world’s population at the time in four successive waves. The death toll is estimated to have been somewhere between 20 million to 50 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

Where it all began

The pandemic was documented to have originated in Kansas in the United States in March 1918 and then eventually reached the frontlines in France and Germany. Since most of the belligerent nations of the time were censoring the press, it was only reported in neutral Spain as a result of King Alfonso XIII’s illness thus the Spanish Flu came to be known.

As the first wave of the pandemic has ravaged the United States and the European battlefields, it soon spread to Africa, South America, and Asia as the shipping routes transported the virus. With the war winding down and many soldiers were redeployed elsewhere bringing the virus even further than before. By June 1918, it already reached the Philippines.

Read the full article on my blog Istoryadista.

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