The 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic
A Devastating Epidemic
First Signs
On the morning of March 11, 1918 a cook at Fort Riley in Kansas reported to the infirmary. He had the classic symptoms of the flu but given his age and overall constitution there was little serious concern, but by the end of the day one hundred and seven reported similar symptoms. The events in Kansas would mark the first recorded infections of the influenza strain that would decimate populations worldwide.
The Second Wave
The initial months of the flu resulted in few deaths. U.S. soldiers carried the virus across the Atlantic to the front lines of World War One, once there it mutated and spread. Returning to the United States through the port of Boston in September of 1918 it spread with alarming speed across the nation. No location was immune with the villages north of Nome, Alaska reporting six out of ten Inuit succumbed to the flu. Spain lost their King and Woodrow Wilson then president of the United States, who was negotiating the Treaty of Versailles to end the war, was stricken while in Paris but survived. The new form of the virus was virulent some died within hours of contact with an infected person.
Symptoms
The symptoms were gruesome including: vomiting, dizziness, labored breathing, incessant sweating, pulmonary hemorrhages, projectile nosebleeds, coughing up pints of yellow-green pus, pneumonia that drowned people in their own fluids. Normally the most lethal for the elderly and very young this strain was the deadliest for those between twenty and forty years old. Because of the swift spread of the disease there was a concerted effort to limit public gatherings and contact. In October of 1918 alone almost 200,000 died in the United States.
Resources Taxed
The sick and dead taxed the resources of the nation. There was a short supply of doctors and many wounded soldiers were returning from the front who needed attention. As the flu raged it claimed the lives of some of the medical providers. Volunteers were recruited and medical students had their classes cancelled to tend to those in need. Because of the rapid nature of the spread and multitude of deaths there was a shortage of those who care for the dead as well. The availability of coffins was limited, morticians could not keep up, and there were not enough grave diggers.
The Consequences
In sixteen months the “Spanish Flu” as it was termed by some had whipped around the world killing some twenty to forty million worldwide. More died in those months than during the four years of the Bubonic Plague (1347-1351). Overall the United States was the least affected with some 675,000 deaths. The biological origins of the flu may have been from birds, transmitted to pigs, and as it mutated to humans. It was the most devastating epidemic in recorded history and depressed life expectancy in the United States by ten years. With the close of the war in Europe and the transition to the roaring twenties those who survived tried to move on. The impact was hard to measure at the time but the destabilization in Spain with the death of the King was the precursor to events that would contribute to the unthinkable Second Great War.
Sources:
Davidson, James West, et al. Nation of Nations: A Narrative History of the American Republic, Fourth Edition, 2001.
Billings, Molly. “The Influenza Pandemic of 1918.” Stanford University: Human Virology. http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/ (accessed December 9, 2008)
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