Why Did The 1918 Flu Epidemic

Viruses, Plagues, and History, written by Michael Oldstone, is an insightful and highly educational book that details the history of, that’s right, viruses and plagues. Through typically dry, yet engaging prose, Oldstone recounts what seems like all of it while simultaneously bringing to light the contributions of those brave scientists who asked themselves, “why.” He focuses his attention on some of the most notable viruses such as smallpox, yellow fever, measles, polio, and later he focuses on more contemporary battles against disease.

In the early 1900’s medicine was making some steps closer into some great improvements for health and better understanding of the human body. Doctors with sufficient knowledge of the human body and cures for diseases and viruses were scarce. People were much more concerned with government and politics, than health and medicine, until one of the greatest and most grotesque lethal pandemics that’s struck the earth in human history. This pandemic the “Spanish Flu” spread so rapidly and had an extremely high mortality rate. This was caused by the close contact of humans and poor cleanliness and sanitation, and the host (virus) and the body taking harsh action

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 1918 pandemic was known as the “Spanish Flu” and was Influenza strain A(H1N1) and it caused the highest known influenza death rate known, 500,000 Americans and 20 million people worldwide.

Before the virus finally settled down, more than 21,000 children became orphans. This was due to the fact that their parents died from the flu. The flu not only caused many people’s lives to be lost, it also left many cities lifeless. A poet named Robert Frost who was recovering from the illness said his bones were too weak and wondered what caused this emaciation. He even said whether or not he was strong enough to write a letter yet. Dr. William H. Peters told the American Public Health Association many influenza victims needed medical assistance. Out of all 7,0586 victims, 5,264 of them needed medical assistance. About 643 of them had heart problems. An astonishing number of citizens suddenly died early in 1919 even after surviving the influenza. Only a few escaped these issues who have been infected before. These incidents were occurring throughout the world. A father named Baker who lost his son, blamed the War Department. He believed they were responsible for his child’s death. “The world was sick, sick to the heart.” (p. 277) It was due to the utter failure of science. Nearly all those who were adults during the pandemic have died from

It killed 1000 Canadians a day and 50 000 overall. Sick people were isolated in schools, churches, hospitals, and theatres. The Spanish Influenza came in three waves and the second wave was the deadliest of them all. During the first wave, people were bleeding from their ears, eyes and nose and there was no one to help them because everyone was infected with this flu: “Power is a way how society functions within it.” John Barry is talking about how the Spanish flu came with a lot of power and killed lots of people. This infection decreased the population and it caused a lot of havoc in the cities. Clearly, the Spanish influenza was a dangerous infection that killed many people and affected Canada socially.

The 1918 influenza outbreak remains one of the world’s greatest pandemic, it caused more casualties than the Nazis and far more than the two atomic bombs that dropped on Japan . It also hastened the end of World War I. The influenza virus arose among the army camps of Kansas, infected soldiers carried the disease by rail to army and navy centers on the East and South Coast. The epidemic continued to spread globally, hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers who embarked to France carried the virus to Europe and the British Isles, the influenza then moved to Africa via Sierra Leone, where the British had a major coaling station. Dockworkers who helped in refueling the ships contracted the infection and they spread the highly contagious virus

“It killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. – John Barry

The allies of WWI came to call the flu pandemic of 1918 the Spanish Flu, because the pandemic received more press attention after the pandemic moved from France to Spain in November 1918. The Spanish Flu pandemic began in 1918 and caught every nation by surprise. It was estimated that the pandemic infected 500 million people but killed 50 to 100 million of those 500 million people infected in three waves. Just as suddenly as the flu pandemic started it also ended one year later in 1919. But before it ended, the governments all around the world responded to the pandemic in ways that we almost ineffective.

One of the most virulent strains of influenza in history ravaged the world and decimated the populations around the world. Present during World War I, the 1918 strain of pandemic influenza found many opportunities to spread through the war. At the time, science wasn’t advanced enough to study the virus, much less find a cure; medical personnel were helpless when it came to fighting the disease, and so the flu went on to infect millions and kill at a rate 25 times higher than the standard.

Influenza, normally called “the flu”, the influenza virus causes an infection in the respiration tract. Even though the influenza virus can sometimes be compared with the common cold. It also can cause a more severe illness or death. During this past century, pandemics took place in 1918, 1957, and 1968, in all of these cases there where unfortunately many deaths. The “Spanish flu” in 1918, killed approximately half a million people in the United States alone. It killed around 20 million worldwide. The “Asian flu” in 1957, in the United States their 70,000 people died. In 1968 the “Hong-Kong flu” There where 34,000 deaths in the United

The assessment reviewed mortality of nine flu seasons from 1996 to 2005 that rendered 115,823 deaths in addition to 20,484 deceased during ‘laboratory-defined flu seasons’ (Fireman, 2009). What exactly does this data present? That the widely accepted belief of the flu vaccination fails to reduce mortality rates the way in which information is portrayed. It is relevant to remain aware that the efficacy of the influenza vaccine is reliant upon a close match of the strain that is in circulation to which, LAIV is recommended for individuals between the ages of two to forty-nine and TIV for that of six months and older. Thus, regardless of what virus is in circulation and if one chooses to receive the vaccination, the recipient’s immune system response, has the final

To say that the flu of 1918 (The Spanish flu) was huge would be an understatement. Over the course of two years this flu killed millions of people not only in the United States but a total of five hundred million people worldwide. The flu is caused by the infectious types of the Influenza virus A, B and C. Types A and B are what cause the seasonal flu. Type A is further broken down into two classifications based on their proteins, these classifications are: hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA).

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