Spanish Flu

Spanish Flu

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II- Governance

In News:

• As COVID-19 grows into a global health crisis, parallels are being drawn with the Spanish influenza of 1918-19, 
• Spanish Flu is considered the most devastating pandemic in recent history, with an estimated toll of 20-50 million lives.
• The 1918 influenza pandemic (1918-20; colloquially known as the Spanish flu) was the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus, with the second being the swine flu in 2009.
• The focal point of that pandemic a century ago was India (brought to India by World War I soldiers returning home), where between 10-20 million Indians died