To survive a pandemic: Short- and long-term health effects of the 1918 influenza pandemic

In three successive waves from 1918 to 1919, the influenza pandemic, also called “the Spanish flu”, killed more than 50 million people world-wide.

The 1918 influenza virus has received large research interest because it belongs to the same subtype of viruses (H1N1) that has caused all subsequent influenza A pandemics and seasonal flues. So far, research has relied on mortality data because reliable morbidity data has been lacking.

Hence, our current knowledge of the health consequences of the pandemic is based on the small fraction of people who died from the disease.

The ignorance of the life trajectories of the survivors, means that we know little about who fell ill, their sickness duration, and to what extent they were at risk of suffering from secondary diseases.

By employing a hitherto unused morbidity data from a national sickness fund, this project will analyze and shed light on the important relation between case incidence and case fatality and investigate both short- and long-term health effects of pandemic morbidity.

By examining the consequences of influenza morbidity on people’s health, this project will extend the knowledge about the scope and severity of the 1918 pandemic.

It will further elucidate what health effects individuals exposed to the pandemic 100-years ago faced in the short- and long-run.

This will in turn be implicative for the long-term health consequences of current and future pandemics caused by the same type of virus.