Pandemic 1918

This influenza occurred at the latter point of “World War 1” coming at a vulnerable time for the world. Many people have already died due to the war, and many resources and money has already been consumed. So when the pandemic hit, it hit with a charge that left a great wound in the economy and health of the people not just in the U.S. but the world. People responded by taking more precautions in health and safety, and took radical response in the exterminating of animal populations.

This book titled Flu details the struggle of scientists searching for what in fact caused the 1918 Influenza epidemic and how to prevent another massive Flu outbreak. The 1918 Flu epidemic (also known as the Spanish Flu) which killed twenty to forty million people (about 3%-5% died) from every corner of the world. Unlike most flu strands which kill the extremes of the age spectrum, the flu in 1918 would kill males more than females, the very young, the very old, and surprisingly the healthy adults (between ages twenty to forty). Also, this strand would kill not just the ones living in undeveloped regions of the world, but also developed regions such as the United States where 25% of Americans were infected and 600,000 thousand died. The mortality

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, as the country grew and trade flourished, periodic epidemics struck regions of the nation as population density increased. Outbreaks of influenza, cholera took over the nation, and in the south, one of the most prevalent was yellow fever. Due to these diseases, a lot of public health policies were either created or changed to better suit the new issues arising. In this essay, I will argue that the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 brought upon many changes in the health realm in terms of public sanitation. In order to prove the epidemic s place in the history of health policies, I will be discussing the creation of the new sewer system, waste disposal techniques, and other projects created.

The first wave of the epidemic, however, was followed by a more fatal second and third wave in the fall and winter of 1918-1919. (Taubenberger) The second wave of the virus emerged in late August and was even more deadly. By the end of September, 50,000 people in Massachusetts had contracted the flu, and in New York, 851 people died in a single day. There were so many deaths in San Francisco and Chicago that the cities banned funerals. October 1918 became the deadliest month in US history, with 195,000 fatalities from the flu. By the end of the third wave, the average life expectancy in the United States dropped by 12

The book “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, written by John M. Barry, covers the progression of the Spanish influenza, especially in the United States. Barry focuses not only on the influenza itself, though, but also on the social influences that allowed the virus to flourish. The book covers how medical practices in the United States had risen up just in time to combat the virus, but, due to societal issues and the war, the doctors struggled in areas where they should have been successful.

The 1968 Pandemic was known as the “Hong Kong Flu” and was Influenza strain A(H3N2) and caused 34,000 deaths in the U.S.

It traveled across the United States in weeks, the globe in only a few months, and it could have a rapid course, progressing from early symptoms to death in a day. The epidemic had two other crucial characteristics. It did not respect the epidemiologic rules taught by influenza outbreaks ignoring risk factors such as age and localized outbreaks. Its symptoms were gruesome: Your face turns a dark brownish purple. You start to cough up blood. Your feet turn black. A blood-tinged saliva bubbles out of your mouth. You die--by drowning. It was a mystery with no known origin, no known etiology, and no treatment. From its extraordinary ability to reach into everyday life in every nation to the special trains to carry away the dead, the epidemic is a story of mythic proportions. Along with these colossal attributes, it is also given, in popular thought, the power of

One of the few cures to the disease was a vaccine created by teams of doctors at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. In partnership with those at Mercy hospitals in Mason City the vaccines developed weakened the germs in the disease at the base. The only problem facing this vaccine is that it was not a preventable vaccine, but rather you had to catch the flu before being treated. This often caused many problems because at the time of infection it was nearly too late for survival. By the 1920’s the largest influenza epidemic in United States history had come to an end. Not real cure was ever found, and the cause of the diseases spreading still remains a mystery in

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 impacted places throughout the world both negatively and positively. Often the reason for the major spread of pestilence was due to transportation of goods and people. This pandemic infected people worldwide, killing millions. Overall people responded to the pandemic in different ways through commitment to the task, consulting religion, avoiding contact with others, and the effort to raise public health awareness.

approach an arising virus and will never allow another pandemic become as deadly as their

What would later become one of the deadliest plagues the world had ever seen started innocuously enough in the spring of 1918 spreading through populations on both sides of the Atlantic. Remarkable for its highly infectious nature, the spring strain was relatively non-lethal, rarely killing infected individuals (Kolata, 1999). Thus little more than average attention was paid to the precursor of a virus that would eventually kill between twenty-one and one-hundred million individuals worldwide (Barry, 2004). Only after the fall wave of the 1918 influenza did it become a requirement to report cases of influenza thus information on this first wave is sporadic at best (Kolata, 1999). I will argue that the nature of this missing data combined

Avian influenza is a disease that has been wreaking havoc on human populations since the 16th century. With the recent outbreak in 1997 of a new H5N1 avian flu subtype, the world has begun preparing for a pandemic by looking upon its past affects. In the 20th Century, the world witnessed three pandemics in the years of 1918, 1957, and 1968. In 1918 no vaccine, antibiotic, or clear recognition of the disease was known. Killing over 40 million in less than a year, the H1N1 strain ingrained a deep and lasting fear of the virus throughout the world. Though 1957 and 1968 brought on milder pandemics, they still killed an estimated 3 million people and presented a new

The graphs of the deaths due to the spring flu revealed that it had the Spanish flu’s distinct “W” shaped curve. While normal human flu tends to kill off people who are either very young or very old, the Spanish flu killed all those and more. It was unusual in that it also had many deaths in the age range of 20-40, whose members were generally more robust than flu’s usual victims (Kolata, Flu 5). Yue-Ming Loo and Michael Gale, Jr. discuss a study by Darwyn Kobasa and many other scientists

The world has experienced a total of four pandemics within the twentieth century. These pandemics, as horrific and deadly as they are, have brought so much more positive advances to our health care system and how we prepare for biological threats. Although we are in the twenty-first century and we have advanced so far in healthcare, there is still the possibility of a deadly pandemic.

Victims of the Spanish flu epidemic suffered from an acute infection in the respiratory system. The virus itself takes its form in droplets exposed to the air, which could then be transferred from person-to-person with ease. Droplets were emitted into the air by an infected person, which could then infect others who breathed in these droplets. Urbanization, increased travel and the unfortunate late reporting’s of the influenza are factors which contributed to the expansion of the Spanish flu