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Luis Manuel Peña. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

Contagious diseases are as much cause for concern now as they were before. Broadly known as gaitz kutsakorrak, in Basque, or kutsuzko gaitzak, they are referred to as gexo iraskorrak, —gaixo eranskorrak, as we would write it today— in the manual of recommendations distributed by the health authorities of the city of Bilbao in 1918 under the heading Gripe izurri-gexoa galazoteko Bilbaoko Osalari-Bazkunak aginduten dauzan egin-beharrak, which we translate as Prophylactic measures recommended by the Academy of Medical Sciences of Bilbao for combating the influenza epidemic. Basque equivalents for ‘infecting’ or ‘being infected’ are kutsatu —perhaps the most widely spread— erantsi, nahastau, pegau, itsatsi or even inkau. (more…)