AKIPRESS.COM - The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that it hopes the Covid-19 pandemic will last less than the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, which in two years killed tens of millions of people, Euronews reported.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference that this goal would be possible if the "we can unite our efforts" and make the most of the available tools, among them vaccines.

The famous "Spanish flu" killed 50 million people from 1918 to 1920 when malnutrition and tuberculosis made the population all the more fragile.

Unlike the new coronavirus, the Spanish flu had particularly hit the youngest.

"In our current situation, [...] the virus is more likely to spread. It can move quickly because we are more connected now," Ghebreyesus said.

"So we have a disadvantage linked to globalization [..] But we have the advantage of having better technologies," he said. "And we know how to stop it."