The Spanish flu--Part I: the first wave.

The Spanish Flu is a term which denotes an influenza pandemic which emerged in 1918. This disease has numerous synonyms: the Spanish Flu, La Grippe espagnole, the Spanish Influenza and it is also possible to encounter throughout the world such names as the Spanish Lady or the Purple Death. The latter name resulted from the specific skin colour in the most severe cases of the diseased, who by the rule also succumbed to the disease, and is also at the same time the only one which does not link this disease with the Iberian peninsula. This name is actually the most correct. The disease was named Spanish due to the complex war circumstances. Spain was not a participant in the war, thus “the new disease” was written about freely in that country. On the contrary, due to the strong censorship of the press of the warring sides, very little was written about this disease. Therefore, a wrong impression resulted from reading the Spanish press, that the disease had emerged there first. It was mentioned in Spain on May 22, 1918 for the first time . The “ABC” Madrid journal published that a disease similar to influenza had been present in the country since the beginning of May. A week later, the Spanish king Alfonso XIII, the Spanish prime minister and some other members of the government got sick and the pandemic was named Spanish for good . The Spanish Flu was also written about in the Serbian press in May 1918. “The Serbian Newspaper” which was