Abstract
The 1918/19 pandemic was the worst influenza outbreak ever experienced, killing over 25 million in six months. In Britain, approximately 225,000 died. Although outbreaks of influenza were not uncommon during the war, the strain responsible for the pandemic was highly virulent. It first appeared in US army camps in March 1918, spreading through troop movements to Asia, Africa, and Europe. By November, the pandemic was worldwide; by April 1919, it had passed. The privations of war damaged the HEALTH of civilian populations, making them more susceptible to influenza; while postwar dislocation meant that some European states were unable to cope. Although most influenza victims did recover, death could be rapid, with sufferers drowning as their lungs filled with liquid. Young adults were particularly vulnerable and women were hit harder than men.
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Suggested Reading
Johnson, Niall and Juergen Mueller. ‘Updating the Accounts: Global Mortality of the 1918–1920 “Spanish” Influenza Pandemic’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 76.1 (Spring 2001) 105–15.
Tomkins, Sandra. ‘The Failure of Expertise: Public Health Policy in Britain During the 1918–19 Influenza Epidemic’, Social History of Medicine, 5 (2001) 435–54.
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Boyce, D. G. The Irish Question and British Politics, 1868–1996 (Basingstoke: Macmillan — now Palgrave Macmillan, 1996).
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© 2006 Faye Hammill, Esme Miskimmin and Ashlie Sponenberg
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Hammill, F., Miskimmin, E., Sponenberg, A. (2006). I. In: Hammill, F., Miskimmin, E., Sponenberg, A. (eds) Encyclopedia of British Women’s Writing 1900–1950. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230379473_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230379473_9
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