ABSTRACT

The influenza (H1N1) pandemic 1918-19 (Spanish flu) was one of the most catastrophic events in the history of medicine. Disease primarily affected the adults in the contrary with the general expectation to children and older people. The recent articles emphasized that the real mortality was 50-100 million. This article devoted on the Ottoman Empire had been affected by this pandemic or not. According to the general dissemination of the pandemic this question should be answered positively. A detailed description of H1N1 pandemic on this country, in the agony days of the “sick man of Europe”, has been drawn in the light of archive documents; the Otoman Archives in Istanbul and Kızılay Archive in Ankara.

Keywords: Influenza pandemic 1918-1919, Spanish flu, Ottoman Empire, History of infectious diseases, History of medicine