Profiling a Pandemic. Who were the victims of the Spanish flu?
Journal article, Peer reviewed
Published version
Date
2017Metadata
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Original version
Mamelund S. Profiling a Pandemic. Who were the victims of the Spanish flu? . Natural History. 2017(September):6-10Abstract
At the end of May 1918, the Spanish government
was one of the first to admit that a new disease
had emerged in their country. The newswire
from Reuters reported that King Alfonso XIII,
the prime minister, and other officials were all
sick with influenza. This outbreak was later referred to as
“the first wave” or “spring/summer wave” of the 1918–
1920 Spanish flu pandemic. As a neutral country during
World War I, Spain lacked the incentive to censor the news
the way combatants did. Although it was recognized early
on that the disease did not originate in Spain, the name
nevertheless stuck.