Covid-19 outbreak reminds of personal accounts providing a story of pandemic flu 1918 individual suffering

Aims: This review aims at investigating personal stories of ordinary people who faced the deadly flu 1918, dealing with the lossof lovedones,withlittleknowledgeofhowtofighttheinvisibleenemyofthisfrighteningillness. Methods: An extended literature search in English using databases as Pubmed, Google Scholar and other sources was conducted , using the terms: “pandemic, flu virus, humanitarian crisis”. A total of 47 relevant records were studied. Out of them 11were excluded and the remaining 36 were included in the study. Results: Reports from one country reflect what happened worldwide. Eskimo settlements, who provided Dr Hultin the flu victims’ tissues, from permafrost massive graves, for his virus hunting, lost 70% of inhabitants. The Greek Aegean island Skyros lost two thirds of its population. Soldiers having arrived back home from the front alive, glad to see their loved ones, died 1-2 days after. There is an enormous number of family tragedies, millions of young victims of the pandemic, leaving orphans in poverty and pain. Two famous personalities the Canadian doctor Sir William Osler and the American president Thomas Woodrow Wilson fell ill with the Spanish Flu. The first died on December 1919, despite long, intensive treatment. The latter, following his illness, became forgetful, concentrated with difficulty during signing of peace treaty between the Allies and the defeated Central Powers in Paris 1919 and his personality and conduct had somehow changed. Conclusions: Flu 1918 was a major humanitarian crisis with lots of individual suffering, which counts more than mass casualty estimations. We should never forget the devastating impact of pandemics on each single, unrepeatable human life and strivebyallmeanstopreventanysimilarfuturemasstragedy.