In several phases, pneumonic – also known as Spanish flu – has killed more than 60,000 Portuguese, mostly young people in Portugal.
Pneumonic caught the health authorities unprepared, not least because the virus was still unknown, and Portugal did not escape the outbreak when, at the end of May 1918, the first case in Vila Viçosa appeared. Soon the contagion spread throughout the country, from south to north.
Portuguese deaths are a tiny part of the more than 20 million victims worldwide – although there are estimates that point to much higher numbers, but it’s such an impressive amount that it can be considered the highest for a disease of its kind in Portugal.
