Spanish Flu and the COVID Pandemic - Essay Example

"Spanish Flu and the COVID Pandemic" is a great example of a paper on the virus.
Influenza or simply Spanish flu of 1918 was the deadliest pandemic in the 20th century, the mortality rate of the Spanish flu pandemic was far much more compared to the death toll of both world war I and II. In the united states alone, it ravaged the entire country in less than a year, killing about 675,000 civilians and soldiers.  The first wave of the infection begun in 1918 South East Asia but the first case in the United States can be dated back to March 11, 1918, sick soldiers complaining of sore throat, headache, and fever were being admitted to the Army hospital at Fort Riley, Kansas leading to the death of about fort eight soldiers but the cause of the infection was not known. At some point, it was thought to be regular flu but worse than the common flu.

However, less attention was paid to the deadliest virus that was consuming lives in less than 24 hours. The world was in the middle of the war, and soldiers were constantly being shipped across the globe. In the process, the virus was being transferred to other regions of the world mainly Europe where the virus mutated to form a lethal strain that had strange symptoms, such as bleeding through the nose and ear as well as victims turning blue, hence the name blue death. The virus was mainly being spread by soldiers who were either returning home from war or being taken to the battlefield.

The first wave of Spanish flu in the United States begun at camp Funston where soldiers returning from the war were being treated. Name Spanish flu was adopted due to the high infection and mortality rate in Spain. Spain which was neutral during world war I did not censor most of its media content like other countries in Europe and America, media gave detailed information about the mortality and infection rates in Spain, in less than a year the Spanish flu had already spread across the world. Additionally, factors that may have led to the spread of the Spanish flu was an insufficient supply of medical equipment, fewer beds to accommodate the patients, doctors, and nurses getting infected, inadequate supply of masks, poor hygiene, and living conditions both at war and among the civilians and ignoring warnings from public health.

Comparatively, both the Spanish flu pandemic and the coronavirus pandemic are respiratory illnesses that spread through indirect and direct contact with either infected person if they cough or sneeze as well as touching contaminated surfaces. Despite countries trying to contain the virus by issuing traveling restrictions, Spanish flu was mostly spread by troops being shipped across the world, although coronavirus pandemic came when the world was not at war, it was airlifted from china to other parts of the world despite outbreak in Wuhan. It can be concluded that both the Spanish flu and coronavirus pandemic spread too fast in all parts of the continent due to ignorance and countries downplaying public health notice such as banning of public gathering, shaking of hands, and wearing of a mask. The measures being put in place were building or designating particular areas in hospital as quarantine facilities, wearing or mask, banning all public gatherings, lockdown, and movement restriction across countries and States.

Both are extraordinarily dangerous diseases characterized by symptoms that are exceedingly powerful, painful, and dehumanizing, living patients to die in agony.  From a different perspective, coronavirus pandemic can be attributed due to ignorance from both the government officials and the public to acknowledge the mistake that was made during the Spanish flu pandemic since both infections are being caused by a virus attacking the respiratory system and being spread the same way.