Spanish influenza

See also: Spanish Influenza

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Named after Spain, which reported on the spread of disease as a neutral state while most other countries fighting World War I impose censorship, leading to a mistaken impression that it was concentrated in Spain.

Noun

Spanish influenza (uncountable)

  1. (pathology) A form of influenza that spread to nearly every part of the world in a pandemic between 1918 and 1920, killing from 20 to 100 million people.
    Synonym: purulent bronchitis
    • 1920, Oscar Jewell Harvey, The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918‎, Pennsylvania: Wilkes-Barre, page 25:
      By systematic organization and effort we have been endeavoring to combat Spanish Influenza in Luzerne County, with its population of 350,000 souls.

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