Authors: Niall Johnson
Abstract
Influenza in 1918-19 was truly pandemic, extending into all parts of the world. Not only did it have a global extent, it exhibited marked universality – universality in reach and universality in impact. Included in these universal characteristics were high levels of morbidity, elevated levels of mortality and a mortality that had its greatest impact on young adults. This paper examines some of the quantitative aspects of the mortality, demography and geography of the pandemic, particularly in the United Kingdom. It includes an estimation of the mortality caused by the pandemic, firstly in Britain and then globally. For Britain I examine the mortality in England and Wales and how the Registrar-General estimated mortality there, apply the same methods to Scotland and then refine the British estimate by examining the causes of death used in the ‘excess deaths’ methods, the role of the pandemic in encephalitis lethargica mortality, and the questions of pregnancy and averted births. The mortality in England and Wales is then examined in terms of socio-economic variations before a discussion of the basic geography of the mortality in Britain.