The 1918 epidemic

There appeared to be two waves of Spanish flu during 1918 in South Africa - one mild and one severe.

South Africa's many ports and harbours rendered it vulnerable to infections passed on by sailors.

South Africa was the fifth hardest hit country in the world. Almost as many South Africans died from the 1918 flu as did Americans.

Unlike other outbreaks of flu, the 1918 epidemic decimated not the young and the old, but those between the ages of 15 - 38.

It is difficult for us to imagine what it must have been like in 1918, but these eyewitness accounts give us some idea.

The first wave of the flu followed typical flu symptoms consisting of a three-day fever, a cough and a runny nose, followed by a rapid convalescence.

This deadly flu spread rapidly across the world - often with soldiers returning home from the battlefronts.

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