Next February 25th, with the participation of the cultural volunteering of the Universitat de València, the Alumni UV Collective will take a guided visit through the exhibition “La experiencia de la pandemia de la gripe de 1918 y su impacto posterior” (The 1918 influenza pandemic experience and its subsequent effect). The visit will be completely free for the Alumni Collective and they will be able to bring a guest with them. A prior reservation must be made by writing an email to amics@uv.es from February 3rd.
Visiting hours will take place from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. and it is necessary to attend 10 minutes before the beginning of the activity at the Cerveró Palace (Cisneros Square, 4, València). The minimum number of participants is 15 and if this number is not reached the activity cannot be carried out. A guest can be invited by a member, even though not being part of the AlumniUV Collective.
One hundred years ago now, the most important epidemic crisis of the 20th century occurred, until the emergence of AIDS, recently described as the genetic mother of all influenza pandemics (Taubenberger, Jeffery K.; Morenos, David M. “1918 Influenza: The mother of ajo pandemics”, Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2006). This serious health crisis, responsible for an estimated number of 50 and 100 million deaths, is now known as the “Spanish flu”.
This is a project curated by Professors María Isabel Porras Gallo and María José Báguena Cervellera. The project is composed of explanatory panels with images of the time and material from the Historical Medical Library and the Scientific and Medical Collection of the Universitat de València.
María José Báguena is reader of the Department of History of Science and Documentation and member of the López Piñero Inter-University Institute of the Universitat de València, based in the Cerveró Palace. At the same time, María Isabel Porras is Professor of Science History at the Faculty of Medicine in Ciudad Real (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha) and one of the top recognised experts on the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. Both have among their main lines of research the history of medicine and infectious diseases.
