00:01In 1918, a strain of influenza known at the time as the Spanish flu caused a devastating global pandemic.
00:10The virus infected an estimated one-third of the world's population and killed at least 50 million people,
00:18making the 1918 flu the deadliest pandemic in modern history.
00:23The outbreak began during the final months of World War I.
00:27Historians believe the conflict contributed to spreading the disease because as troops began to return to their home countries, they
00:34brought the virus with them.
00:38In 2014, previously undiscovered records linked the 1918 flu to the transportation of Chinese laborers across Canada in 1917 and
00:491918.
00:49These laborers would spend about a week in sealed train containers as they were transported across the country before continuing
00:57to France.
01:01But reports show that several thousand laborers ended their Canadian journey in medical quarantine.
01:08Canadian doctors didn't take the workers' symptoms seriously, and by the time the laborers arrived in northern France, many more
01:16had become sick and hundreds were soon dying.
01:20So why, then, is this pandemic called the Spanish flu?
01:24Well, Spain was one of the first places where the epidemic was identified, but historians think that's only because of
01:31wartime censorship.
01:32Spain was a neutral nation and didn't enforce strict censorship of its press during the war, so the Spanish press
01:40freely published early accounts of the illness.
01:43As a result, people thought the flu started in Spain, and the name Spanish flu struck.
01:50By the summer of 1918, the virus was quickly spreading to other countries in Europe, and the epidemic rapidly became
01:57a pandemic as it made its way around the world.
02:01By August 1918, the flu had infected civilians in Canada and South Africa, and by September it had reached the
02:08U.S. through Boston Harbor.
02:11World War I caused a shortage of doctors in some areas, and many of the physicians who were left became
02:17ill themselves.
02:20Schools and other buildings became makeshift hospitals, and medical students had to take the place of doctors in some cases.
02:29To prevent the infection from spreading, physicians urged people to avoid crowded places or spending time with people outside their
02:37households.
02:39People were advised not to shake hands with others, to stay indoors, to avoid touching communal things like library books,
02:49and to wear masks that covered their mouths and noses when in public.
02:56Schools and theaters closed, and the New York City Department of Health strictly enforced a sanitary code amendment that made
03:04spitting in the streets illegal.
03:08By the spring of 1919, the number of deaths from the Spanish flu were decreasing, but countries were left devastated
03:15in the wake of the outbreak.
03:19Pneumonia or other respiratory complications brought about by the flu were often the main causes of death.
03:25This makes it hard to determine the exact numbers killed by the flu, as the listed cause of death was
03:31often something else.
03:34The flu killed over 675,000 Americans in total.
03:40The impact on the population was so severe that in 1918, American life expectancy was reduced by 12 years.
03:48Globally, the 1918 flu remains the most deadly modern pandemic to date, having killed an estimated 1-3% of
03:56the world's population.
03:58Two other flu pandemics occurred during the 1900s, killing an estimated 1 million people each.
04:04The most recent flu pandemic took place in 2009, and killed around 200,000 people.
04:10These pandemic flu viruses spread easily because they didn't closely resemble the seasonal flu viruses circulating at the time.
04:16When it comes to seasonal flu outbreaks nowadays, we have international flu monitoring systems, antiviral medications, and annual flu shots
04:25that help to keep the rate of severe disease and death in check.
04:29Scientists are continually working to improve the annual flu shot, and someday, they hope to roll out universal flu vaccines
04:35that protect against a wide array of flu viruses.
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04:51The weekend is a huge multitasking thing that will grow as a result of anti-luckian.
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