Influenca or Spanish flu in Budžak on Stara Planina Mountain: Mortality research results 1918-1919. in the villages of Jalovik Izvor and Šesti Gabar

The Spanish fever pandemic which spread worldwide in 1918, reached Eastern Serbia in the autumn of the same year and it was enevitable for it to spread to the settlement of Stara Mountain as well. In the ony preserved registry book of the dead referring to a part of Stara Mountain, the so-called "Budžak" which keeps records of mortalities in 1918, The Book of the Church of Jalovik Izvor and Church of Saint Paraskeva for the villages Jalovik Izvor and Šesti Gabar, no cases of death from this disease were mentioned. However, guided by the experience in the analysis of the registry books of deaths throughout Serbia, it could be noticed that a large number of these deaths were registered with diagnosis of influenza and pneumonia. Bearing that in mind, we are open to a possibility that these deaths were due to the same pandemic disease. Besides the analysis of the death registery book, relevant literature was used in the preparation of this paper.