According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website, the virulent Spanish flu was an H1N1 variety that spread across the globe in 1918 and 1919.

That flu, which was named the Spanish flu although it had no Spanish connection, killed 50 million people — or about one-third of the Earth's population —including 675,000 in the United States.

Unlike COVID-19, the Spanish flu was deadly to those younger than 5 years old.

It also ruthlessly targeted those between 20 and 40 years old and those aged 65 and older.

One similar factor between the Spanish flu and COVID-19 is that no vaccine existed to protect people from contracting it.

Like the worldwide population today, proper personal hygiene, isolation, quarantine, the use of disinfectants and limitations on public gatherings were the interventions used in 1918 and 1919.

According to the Butler County Historical Society, the Spanish flu descended on Western Pennsylvania in October 1918.

All public gathering places were closed and the county Red Cross begged for volunteers via advertisements in the Butler Eagle and a telephone campaign in which 400 residents were contacted and 31 volunteers came forward.

The Spanish flu spent only one month in Butler County, but 7,000 cases and “several hundred” deaths were recorded.