"O Ganzá do Seu Leitão" - Roberto Ribeiro - Composer: Nei Lopes and Cléber Augusto - 1983
The Spanish flu was a disease that struck every continent between 1918 and 1920, claiming somewhere between 20 and 50 million lives worldwide. In Brazil, the disease arrived through the port of Recife in September 1918, aboard the ship Demerara, which had sailed from Liverpool, England. The vessel was also responsible for spreading the contamination to the cities of Salvador and Rio de Janeiro. In the federal capital, the disease arrived on the 15th of that same month, when 267 infected passengers disembarked.
The flu, which became known as the “Spanish flu,” carried in its name the traces of the geopolitics of the period. In World War I, reporting an outbreak of disease could suggest weakness among nations and losses in the war. Spain – which did not take part in the conflict – was the first country to report on the flu without censorship. Hence the reference to the country. But, in fact, the disease originated in the United States, months earlier.
The Spanish flu was extremely contagious and lethal. Caused by an aggressive strain of the Influenza A virus, subtype H1N1, it went through three waves, reaching Brazil only in the second – and the strongest – of them. Transmission occurred through small droplets of saliva projected when coughing or sneezing, with airborne transmission also possible. The disease produced mild symptoms, such as headache, back pain, and loss of smell, characteristic of respiratory inflammations, as well as some more severe ones, such as bloody vomiting, hemorrhages, delirium, lack of oxygenation, coma, and often death. The flu acted quickly on victims' bodies, causing death within a period of one to three days.
Patients in a makeshift hospital in the Meyer neighborhood, during the Spanish Flu pandemic. Careta, November 23, 1918, n. 544. Fundação Biblioteca Nacional - Hemeroteca Digital
Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of Red Cross nurses attending to flu patients. On the left side, three nurses stand wearing white uniforms with red crosses. In front of them are patient beds covered with white sheets. In the center, a man in a suit looks at the patients. In the background, on the wall, there are frames and a patient control board. The image is marked with text in Portuguese, mentioning that these are Red Cross nurses treating flu patients and that they are flu patients at the Brazilian Red Cross hospital.Since the beginning of the century, Rio had been going through a period of modernization, with architectural changes in the downtown area and the port district, driven by concerns over sanitation and reducing the spread of disease. The “new,” modern and planned city, however, was not prepared for a pandemic, and the government ignored the severity of the disease for as long as it could. It was only from mid-October 1918 onward that the pandemic was acknowledged in its true state, as there was no longer any way to hide it, since hundreds of people were dying every day. It is estimated that the number of deaths in the capital reached 12,700, more than a third of all deaths in the country.
Public prayers to ask for the end of the epidemic's scourge. Revista Careta, 10/26/1918. Ed. 540, p16. Collection: Fundação Biblioteca Nacional
Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a crowd gathered in front of a classical building. The image shows a large gathering of people, many of them holding umbrellas, suggesting a rainy day. The crowd is densely spread out, filling the space from the foreground to the building's entrance in the background. The building has a facade with columns and large doors, and trees are visible on the left. At the top of the image, there is text in Portuguese mentioning "A Influenza Hespanhola no Rio" ("The Spanish Influenza in Rio"). Below, there is another caption that translates to "Public prayers to ask God for the cessation of the epidemic's scourge."The management of the Public Health Board was slow and inefficient. The press began to play an important role in disseminating information for the control and prevention of the disease. In their columns, newspapers warned of the need for hand hygiene, taught how to use masks, and warned that crowds should be avoided. In addition, some newspapers began to publish homemade recipes for preventing and curing the disease, in a mixture of scientific knowledge and popular beliefs. There were advertisements published for “miracle remedies” that, most of the time, were produced in makeshift laboratories or clandestine apothecaries. The variety of products included tonics, medicinal plants, ointments, lozenges, flours, teas, vinegar, syrup, and lemon.
Avenida Rio Branco during the period of the “Spanish Influenza,” a time when the city emptied out in an attempt to contain the spread of the disease. Careta magazine, 10/26/1918, no. 540. Hemeroteca of the National Library.
Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of an avenue on a rainy day. On the left, we see tall buildings with classical architecture, including a structure with columns and an entrance balcony. On the right, there is another large building with many windows and a sign that reads "JORNAL DO BRASIL." In the center of the avenue, there are rows of trees and an old car parked. The sky is cloudy, and the street is wet, reflecting the rain. At the bottom of the image, there is a caption mentioning the "Spanish influenza" and the publication date of 10/26/1918.There were shortages of hospital beds and doctors, coffins and gravediggers. Social inequalities intensified, and most of the victims were among the Black and poor population. The city's streets became the stage for macabre scenes, with corpses scattered across the sidewalks, being collected by trucks like garbage bags. According to journalist and writer Carlos Heitor Cony, “(a) guy would start crossing the street standing up, in a state of exemplary health, and reach the other sidewalk lying down, struck down by the Flu.”
Street scenes during the Spanish Flu. Photos. Revista Careta, 10/26/1918. Ed. 540, p17. Fundação Biblioteca Nacional
Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph divided into three sections, depicting street scenes during the Spanish Flu of 1918-1919. The image shows three different situations:
On the left side, we see a person standing, wearing a hat and a scarf, holding an object that appears to be a bottle. Beside them lies another person on the ground, with an object that looks like a basket. Both are in front of a building with windows and bars.
In the center, there is a line of people waiting in front of a pharmacy, recognizable by the red cross on its façade. The individuals are standing behind a metal protective counter.
On the right side, we see a person from behind, wearing a hat and trousers, walking beside a street lamp. The background features a building with columns and a tree in the distance.In the first two months of 1919, Rio began to breathe again. Then, on March 1st, the Carnival of resurrection exploded. The armistice ending World War I, combined with the end of the Spanish Flu, gave the epidemic's survivors many reasons to celebrate.
Samba schools didn't exist yet. There were blocos, cordões, ranchos, corsos, and the so-called grandes sociedades, which paraded with large allegorical floats. In 1919, they chose illness as their theme: the Fenianos displayed a float with skulls representing the ‘Spanish dancer,’ surrounded by pierrots, harlequins, and columbines. The Democráticos, meanwhile, presented a large cup inscribed with ‘midnight tea,’ a reference to the deadly drink said to be served to the terminally ill to hasten their farewell.
The debauchery was total. It seemed unbelievable that the stage for such euphoria was the same one that had buried so many dead during the epidemic tragedy.
