The corona pandemic with which the world struggled in 2020-2022 had a predecessor 100 years ago: the Spanish Flu. The peak of this flu virus was in 1918 and hit Europe particularly hard. Millions of deaths were the result, far more than the First World War made.

What was special about the Spanish Flu was that it mainly affected people between the ages of 18 and 40, normally the group with the strongest immune system. The virus settled in the lungs and caused a high fever and severe pneumonia. Because they could not be treated, many died within days.

According to various estimates, the flu led to about 50,000 deaths in the Netherlands, especially in the poorer areas of the north-east of the Netherlands and with a striking number of soldiers. In Limburg, the mining region was hit hard, but North Limburg also had many victims. Schools were also closed, fairs were cancelled and social contacts were urgently discouraged. Because there were hardly any doctors in the countryside, the villages were hit relatively harder than the cities.

Meijel was also hit hard by the Spanish Flu. In 1918 – the peak of the epidemic – 54 people died in Meijel, in the two years before and after an average of 34 per year. And that on a population of about 2000 people. It is almost inevitable that this increase of no less than 60% was the result of the Spanish Flu. In October 1918, no fewer than 8 people died in one day in the neighbouring village of Roggel. The other neighbouring villages also showed similar mortality peaks. The suffering was enormous.

Jos Pouls