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Barometer

How Spain got blamed for the Spanish flu — and where to find Ebola on a map

Plus: The careers of ex-MPs; Scotland’s fiscal balance; and Muslim attitudes to homosexuality

16 May 2015

9:00 AM

16 May 2015

9:00 AM

Plagued by stigma

The World Health Organisation told doctors to stop naming diseases after people, places and animals so as not to stigmatise them. But are diseases even really associated with things that gave them their name?
— Spanish flu. First identified in an army hospital in Kansas in March 1918. It gained its name because Spain was a neutral country, and uncensored newspaper reports made it appear uniquely affected.

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