Spanish Flu Trivia
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50 free Spanish Flu trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Spanish flu trivia for history readers, public-health students and anyone who lived through 2020 and wants to know how the last great pandemic played out. The quiz starts with the name: why a virus first documented in Kansas ended up blamed on neutral Spain, what the Russians, French, Germans and Brazilians called it instead, and why the WHO now lists 'Spanish flu' as an example to avoid. From there it follows the four waves: army cook Albert Gitchell at Camp Funston in March 1918, the mild spring wave that sickened three-quarters of the French army, the lethal autumn wave that turned faces blue, the Philadelphia parade that cost 12,000 lives, and the strange fact that healthy 20-to-40-year-olds died in the greatest numbers. Later rounds cover India's catastrophic toll, Western Samoa's 22 percent death rate against American Samoa's zero, the Anti-Mask League of San Francisco, the bacterium wrongly blamed, the hockey final that was cancelled, and Johan Hultin's journey to an Alaskan permafrost grave that let scientists sequence the virus in 2005. Questions run from easy to expert and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our World War I and pandemics quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The 1918 pandemic was caused by which subtype of the influenza A virus?
H1N1
Its descendants caused every later flu pandemic, and a novel H1N1 returned to cause the 2009 pandemic.
Q 02Roughly what share of the world's population was infected by the pandemic?
About a third
That was an estimated 500 million people out of 1.8 to 1.9 billion.
Q 03Why did the pandemic come to be called the 'Spanish' flu?
its neutral press reported it freely
Wartime censors in belligerent countries suppressed bad news; Spanish officials were baffled to learn other countries called it 'the Spanish grip'.
Q 04The earliest probable cases were documented in March 1918 in which US state?
Kansas
Cases in Haskell County had prompted the local doctor Loring Miner to warn the Public Health Service as early as January.
Q 05The 1918 flu is conventionally dated from Albert Gitchell's case. What was his job at Camp Funston?
an army cook
Within days 522 men at the camp had reported sick, and by 11 March the virus had reached Queens, New York.
Q 06When Pravda announced the flu's arrival in Moscow, what nickname did it use?
the Spanish lady
'Ispánka' became a common name across Russia; Poles called it the 'Bolshevik disease'.
Q 07The blue-violet cyanosis seen in dying patients gave the disease which grim nickname?
the purple death
Two mahogany spots would appear over the cheekbones and within hours the whole face turned blue as the lungs filled with fluid.
Q 08The French press initially used which name before adopting 'Spanish flu' to avoid offending an ally?
American flu
British soldiers meanwhile called it 'Flanders flu' and the Germans 'Flandern-Fieber'.
Q 09Japan blamed which group for bringing the disease home from Taiwan?
sumo wrestlers
In Senegal it was 'Brazilian flu' and in Brazil 'German flu'; almost every country blamed someone else.
Q 10In Spain itself, the disease was nicknamed the 'Naples Soldier' after what?
a popular song from a zarzuela
'Gripe española' is now common in Spain but remains controversial there.
Q 11Virologist John Oxford argued the pandemic began at an overcrowded British army camp in which French town?
Étaples
The camp had a piggery and regular poultry deliveries, and a flu-like disease with high mortality had struck there in late 1916.
Q 12Historian Mark Humphries linked the pandemic to 96,000 labourers mobilised from which country for the Allies?
China
A 2016 study found the labourers' very low flu mortality made them an unlikely source, and pointed to circulation in Europe beforehand.
Q 13The deadlier second wave of 1918 spread by ship from Brest to Boston and which West African port?
Freetown
From Freetown it moved along the coast, rivers and railways, and South Africa received it on ships bringing home labour corps troops.
Q 21Roughly how many Americans died in the 1918-1919 flu season?
500,000 to 850,000
About 20 million of the 105 million population were infected; Native American and Alaskan communities suffered terribly.
Q 22Which Pacific territory, occupied by New Zealand, lost 22% of its population within two months?
Western Samoa
Neighbouring American Samoa imposed a strict quarantine and did not record a single death.
Q 23Along with New Caledonia, which territory kept influenza deaths at zero via quarantine?
American Samoa
The flu finally reached it in 1926 once the quarantine ended.
Q 14A war-bond parade in which US city on 28 September 1918 triggered an outbreak killing 12,000?
Philadelphia
In the week ending 16 October, 4,597 people died there; by 11 November the flu had almost vanished from the city.
Q 15Which month of 1918 had the highest fatality rate of the entire pandemic?
October
The US recorded about 292,000 deaths between September and December 1918, against 26,000 in the same months of 1915.
Q 16Celebrations of which event on 11 November 1918 caused fresh outbreaks in Lima and Nairobi?
the Armistice
The second wave was mostly over by December, but a third wave followed in early 1919.
Q 17Unusually for influenza, this pandemic killed which age group in the greatest numbers?
young adults
Nearly half of US deaths were among 20-to-40-year-olds; an overreacting immune system, or 'cytokine storm', is one explanation.
Q 18Most deaths were caused not by the virus directly but by what?
bacterial pneumonia
There were no antibiotics, and common throat bacteria reached lungs damaged by the virus.
Q 19Since the virus was invisible under a microscope, which bacterium was wrongly blamed for the disease?
Haemophilus influenzae
A vaccine against it did not prevent infection but did reduce deaths from secondary infection.
Q 20Which country is generally described as the worst affected, losing about 5% of its population?
India
The 1911-1921 decade was the only census period in which India's population fell.
Q 24Which country protected a third of its population by blocking the main road across the island?
Iceland
Australia's maritime quarantine kept the flu out until January 1919, when it entered through Melbourne.
Q 25Resistance to face masks was exemplified by an 'Anti-Mask League' in which US city?
San Francisco
A later study found early mask mandates and gathering bans could cut death rates by up to 50 percent if not lifted too soon.
Q 26New York's health commissioner staggered business hours to avoid overcrowding where?
on the subways
New York kept its schools open in both 1918 and 1920, while Memphis shut its down.
Q 27Rumours claimed the Germans had caused the disease by poisoning which product made by Bayer?
aspirin
Other rumours had U-boats releasing poison gas; real treatments ranged from quinine to strychnine and castor oil.
Q 28The 1919 final of which sporting trophy was cancelled after players fell ill, and Joe Hall died?
the Stanley Cup
The Montreal Canadiens' defenceman died in April 1919; the Cup was not awarded that year.
Q 29Which sitting president of Brazil died in the pandemic?
Rodrigues Alves
Brazil lost around 300,000 people in total.
Q 30Which future emperor of Ethiopia caught the flu and survived?
Haile Selassie
Estimates for deaths in Addis Ababa alone range from 5,000 to 10,000 or more.