The outbreak did not originate in Spain (see below),[53] but reporting did, due to wartime censorship in belligerent nations. Spain was a neutral country unconcerned with appearances of combat readiness, and without a wartime propaganda machine to prop up morale;[54][55] so its newspapers freely reported epidemic effects, including King Alfonso XIII's illness, making Spain the apparent locus of the epidemic.[56] The censorship was so effective that Spain's health officials were unaware its neighboring countries were similarly affected.[57]