Spanish flu in Portugal: the construction of memory. Medical work and hospital care

Abstract

With this work we intend to reflect on Spanish flu in Portugal, trying to evidence its impact on Portuguese society and the role played by health professionals, particularly doctors, in assisting victims of the disease. Struck by the first wave of the epidemic in the spring of 1918, the country, then governed by Sidônio Pais, was already suffering the consequences of its participation in the First World War. It was a time marked by shortcomings of all kinds, when social upheavals gave expression to the population’s discontent and revolt.
The emergence and spread of Spanish flu exposed the country’s weaknesses in several areas, namely in terms of health care, hospital care, personal and public hygiene. The unpreparedness and the inability revealed by the administrative and health authorities to contain and fight the disease, despite the measures taken with this purpose, motivated violent reactions and even generated the population’s distrust in public entities. At the time, it was worth the intervention of several institutions, namely “Misericórdias”, which took charge of providing assistance to patients and their families. For the (re)construction of memory on Spanish flu, a pandemic that has long been forgotten, and to draw a more general picture of the situation in Portugal, we resorted to studies carried out by doctors and, in particular, the press of the time, recognizing the important role he played, despite the censorship then in effect, not only in transmitting information about the scourge that affected the country and the world, but also in criticizing and denouncing what was considered deserving of disapproval.