The Spanish Flu and Kansas

The Spanish Flu, was one of the most deadly diseases the world has ever experienced. Now while it says Spanish, it really has nothing to do with Spain other than just a kind of nickname. Now what is the Spanish Flu? It’s not just a regular flu. How many people died during the outbreak, when did it happen, and most importantly. What did Kansas have to do with the Spanish Flu?

First off what is the Spanish flu? It’s not just an ordinary strain of the flu, which is mostly harmless. This flu which goes by the name H1N1 Influenza Virus, is q mutated form of the flu. This form had all the regular effects of the disease, except that it had a way to kill the victim. It creates a cytokine storm in your body(According to the N.C.B.I) which makes your immune system overreact which caused plenty of symptoms. Symptoms including swelling, redness, extreme fatigue, and of course death. But the worst part of this disease is how easily it could spread. You could just cough on someone and get them sick, which in the end could kill them.

Now where did the disease come from in the first place? There are a lot of theories of where it originated, but the one with the most evidence is Europe. What happened is that during WWII the soldiers were in Europe and they were in trenches a lot which is really moist which can spread disease easily, then someone got the disease. Then that person spread it to another soldier and cycle continued until the end of the war, when they went back home. Once they got back home they spread it to the whole country and started the huge outbreak.

In terms of severity, it can be compared to the Black Death. The Spanish Flu doesn’t seem to be that much. Though, you have to think about the medicine that Europe had during the Black Death, it wasn’t very good and that was during the 14th century. For the Spanish Flu though we had more advanced medicine. While the black death had 75 million deaths, the Spanish Flu had 50 million deaths, still making the Spanish flu one of the most deadly diseases ever.

Kansas during the time of the Spanish Flu was essentially a breeding ground for the disease. What happened is the soldiers came back to America and arrived at Fort Riley, in Kansas. Many of those soldiers had the Flu and let spread from person to person in the fort and eventually the disease got outside the fort. So Kansas was one of the main starting points for the Spanish Flu. Kansas didn’t do just that, they also turned the whole fort into hospital for people with the Spanish Flu.

The next time you have the flu think about the Spanish Flu. Starting in Europe and coming to the us, the cytokine storm destroying your immune system, the people that died, and of course Fort Riley. So if you thought the regular flu was bad, i’m pretty sure this article has changed your mind about the flu.