Influenza Pandemic 1918

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

An epidemic is when an infectious disease spreads quickly among a large, secluded population.

A pandemic, on the other hand, is when an infectious disease spreads suddenly world-wide.

The famous Ebola outbreak is considered an epidemic because human sufferers are somewhat circumscribed to particular areas of West Africa, where the virus is common among indigenous fruit bats.

AIDS is considered to be a pandemic because it is a virus that seems to have no geographical boundaries.

• Do you know of any epidemics that broke out in the United States?
• What about pandemics?

You may have about the Yellow Fever epidemic that ravaged the nation's capital back in the late 1700s, and you certainly have heard about the Covid-19 pandemic.

• How much do you know about the pandemic that swept across the world about a century ago?

In 1918, just a year after WWI ended, the world faced yet another catastrophic event.

In the span of just one year, Influenza, more commonly known as the flu, claimed the lives of an estimated 45 million people throughout the world. More individuals succumbed to the illness than lost their lives fighting in WWI!

This record-breaking flu remains one of the worst pandemics to date.

Take some time to learn about this deadly disease by investigating this profound resource, The Great Pandemic: The United States in 1918-1919 (Department of Health and Human Services).

Next, watch The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 from TeacherTube and listen for the answers to the following questions:

• How did WWI contribute to the spread of influenza?
• Where does flu enter the body?

The video stated that little was known about how to cope with the disease.

• What do you think were some results of this uncertainty?

Continue on to the Got It? section to learn more about this illness.