Epidemic on school benches

A case of Spanish flu in 1918 in Central Slovenia

Abstract

The Spanish flu pandemic is considered one of the greatest catastrophes in human history. In the period of 1918–1920, the disease infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide and, according to the most recent data, resulted in the deaths of 50 to 100 million. The second wave of the flu pandemic also reached the population of the Slovenian provinces between September and December 1918. Morbidity rates among pupils and teachers in Ljubljana and the wider central Slovenian area are one of the rare aspects of the epidemic that have to some degree been documented and directly point to the wide prevalence of influenza. The rates of school absenteeism varied between 16% and 75% of all pupils. The only public health measure to be implemented in Carniola during the epidemics was a one-month closure of all schools, first in Ljubljana and then in the most severely affected districts in Lower Carniola.