Introduction:

since ancient times, epidemics put human beings at risk. There are better details of the 1918 influenza; however, in Cuba many data are not accurately described. Uncertainty is established when reading non-matching articles.

Objective:

to describe historical facts about the Spanish flu in Cuba based on non-coincident published articles.

Methods:

the historical-logical method was used, with emphasis on induction-deduction, through a bibliographic search with a Google search engine and LILACS, Scopus, SciELO, Pubmed and Medigraphic databases. Sixteen references were used that were considered to be of greater clarity and accuracy.

Development:

Martínez-Fortún, in his compilations, refers, in the month of September 1918, to the presence of a serious epidemic of “grippe”; Bohemia Magazine reported it at the beginning of October. According to the Manzanillo archive, the rapid and alarming development of the epidemic began in this city on October 10. On October 6, Martínez-Fortún expressed concern about the docking of a ship with cases of influenza and the Mexican newspaper Excelsior that day reported that the crew of the Spanish steamer Alfonso XII, which was docked in the port of Havana, was infected. Martínez Fortún himself mistakenly described this event in another text and on another day, the 18th, which other authors reproduced.

Conclusions:

there is evidence that the ship that entered Cuba was the Alfonso XII, on October 6, 1918, with cases of the flu that joined those already existing on the island.

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