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Pandemic: How The Flu Changed Wales

Factual

Scientist John Oxford examines the impact of the Great Spanish Flu Pandemic on Wales.

Scientist John Oxford examines the impact of the Great Spanish Flu Pandemic on Wales and asks - a century on - whether it could happen again.

Pandemic: How The Flu Changed Wales: Episode 2

Episode 2

BBC Radio Wales - Pandemic: How The Flu Changed Wales, Episode 2

Scientist John Oxford examines the impact the 1918/19 flu pandemic had on Wales

Scientist John Oxford continues his examination of the impact of the 1918/19 flu Pandemic on Wales

More than 10,000 people died in Wales during the flu pandemic of 1918/19 - devastating in a population of around 2.5 million. It killed many more people than the First World War and it's estimated more than 50 million people may have died worldwide.

The virus entered through the ports as young men returning from the trenches passed on the lethal strain to people on the home front. The good railway infrastructure in Wales at the time helped to spread it to every corner of the country with nowhere left unaffected. 

In Episode 2, John looks at how the second wave of the outbreak, in October and November 1918 seems to have had a particularly devastating impact on Wales. People were dying every week, most of them young adults in their 20s and 30s. Undertakers struggled to cope and in some cases children were left to bury their parents. 

Throughout the series, John hears testimony from the people who experienced it at first hand, about soldiers on the front line and from those who remembered whole families being wiped out within days of loved ones returning from the fighting. Meanwhile people from different parts of Wales delve into their own history to try and understand what their ancestors went through.

The series also looks at how the authorities in Wales tried desperately to stem the spread of the flu and how a shortage of doctors due to the First World War meant inadequate nursing support limited the care that was available.

Meanwhile John tries to work out why the events of 1918/19 are largely forgotten and asks whether a pandemic on such a scale could ever happen again. 

Produced by Ashley Byrne and Iain Mackness.

An MIM Production for BBC Radio Wales

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