When a person sick by flu sneezes or coughs, more than half a million virus particles can spread to those that are close to the infected person. During the World War I, increased travel and modern transportation systems made it easy for people to spread the disease.
Which is why the 1918 flu influence became a pandemic condition. In addition to spreading the virus, the War also increased the lethality of it. Stresses of combat, malnourishment and malnutrition made people more susceptible to the virus.
The 1918 influenza pandemic lasted from January 1918 to December 1920. The unusually deadly influence pandemic infected more than 500 million people across the world. The most troublesome areas were in America, as well as in the Pacific. Between 50 and 100 million people died from the virus, which was 5% of the world’s population at the time.
One of the reasons why the virus was deadly was the unusual aggressive nature. But there were still some unanswered questions. For example, why the virus appeared in the spring in non-fatal form, and then re-appeared in lethal form during the autumn. The documentary tries to answer some of the questions, and remind everyone how vulnerable we were to viruses some 100 years ago.
