Spanish flu pandemic (1918–20)

In one of the worst influenza epidemics in history, the Spanish flu swept across the country between 1918 and 1920, spread mainly by soldiers returning from the First World War battlefields. The speed with which this extremely contagious virus claimed lives, especially those of young people in their prime, was shocking. The Spanish flu decimated 2.5 to 5 per cent of the world’s population. It killed an estimated 50,000 Canadians; along with the heavy toll of the war, this loss had devastating socio-economic consequences. Aware of the shortcomings in the management of this crisis, federal authorities created the Department of Health in 1919.