More deaths from flu than war

Six million dead in 12 weeks, it is claimed

London, 20 December 1918 - More lives have been lost to the influenza epidemic in recent months than were lost to war in the last four years.

According to the medical correspondent for The Times newspaper in London, six million people have died from influenza in the last 12 weeks throughout the world. Not since the Black Death of the 14th century has such a plague swept across the earth, he suggests. By this calculation, the epidemic has been five times more deadly than the recent world war, which resulted in 20 million deaths, but over four and half years.

In India alone, there has been a reported three million deaths and in Barcelona an average of 1,200 people died every day.

In Cape Town, 2,000 children have been left destitute as a result of the disease and the Commonwealth of Australia was compelled to send an aid ship to Samoa, where 80% of the population were afflicted.

However, the correspondent from The Times maintains that the flu may have exacted an even greater human cost had it not been for some of the measures that were taken to limit its spread.

In San Francisco, for instance, the flu was stopped by an order requiring inhabitants to wear masks on the streets and in public places – the plan showed signs, within nine days, of being an effective method of preventing the spread of the disease.

In Ireland, the medical superintendent of the Westmeath Asylum, has attributed the freedom of his patients to inoculation. Only 3% of those inoculated were impacted, whereas 80% of those who refused such treatment were stricken.

Several deaths have occurred within the last few days in Athlone, a reminder that while the flu threat has abated, it has not entirely passed.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]