Hard as it is to believe, the answer is true.

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Hard as it is to believe, the answer is true."

Stewart Baldwin
5 years ago
Views:

Hard as it is to believe, the answer is true. World War I claimed an estimated 16 million lives. The influenza epidemic that swept the world in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people.

1 Hard as it is to believe, the answer is true. World War I claimed an estimated 16 million lives. The influenza epidemic that swept the world in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people. One fifth of the world's population was attacked by this deadly virus. Within months, it had killed more people than any other illness in recorded history. The plague emerged in two phases. In late spring of 1918, the first phase, known as the "three- day fever," appeared without warning. Few deaths were reported. Victims recovered after a few days. When the disease surfaced again that fall, it was far more severe. Scientists, doctors, and health officials could not identify this disease which was striking so fast and so viciously, eluding treatment and defying control. Some victims died within hours of their first symptoms. Others succumbed after a few days; their lungs filled with fluid and they suffocated to death. The plague did not discriminate. It was rampant in urban and rural areas, from the densely populated East coast to the remotest parts of Alaska. Young adults, usually unaffected by these types of infectious diseases, were among the hardest hit groups along with the elderly and young children. The flu afflicted over 25 percent of the U.S. population. In one year, the average life expectancy in the United States dropped by 12 years. It is an oddity of history that the influenza epidemic of 1918 has been overlooked in the teaching of American history. Documentation of the disease is ample, as shown in the records selected from the holdings of the National Archives regional archives. Exhibiting these documents helps the epidemic take its rightful place as a major disaster in world history.

2 Placing Blame When influenza began to cut its deadly path across the U.S. in the autumn of 1918, it did so with such speed and fatal efficiency that some believed sinister forces to be at work. By the early 1900s, many Americans had lulled themselves into thinking that the wonders of medical science could vanquish any foe, no matter how microscopic. For over a century, after all, the booming science of medicine had gone from one triumph to the next. Researchers had developed vaccines for diseases ranging from anthrax to smallpox. Great advances in microbiology had eliminated the mystery from once fatal diseases. When it turned out that influenza was confounding even the most brilliant medical minds of the time, fear set in, and along with it, suspicion. That America was engaged in a World War provided a convenient target upon which to heap suspicion: the reviled Kaiser and his German countrymen. As thousands of Bostonians fell under the flu s deadly spell, rumors began to spread almost as fast as the flu itself. One widely accepted notion outside of the medical profession, that is had German spies deliberately seeding Boston Harbor with influenza- sprouting germs. Such innuendo was lent credence by statements of individuals who should have known better. On September 17, 1918, Lt. Col. Philip Doane, head of the Health and Sanitation Section of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, forcefully voiced his opinion that the epidemic might have been started by Germans put ashore from U- Boats. Said Doane, It would be quite easy for one of these German agents to turn loose influenza germs in a theater or some other place where large numbers of persons are assembled. The Germans have started epidemics in Europe, and there is no reason why they should be particularly gentle with America. Other notions of this strain of influenza s origin contained less- politically charged, but equally specious logic. According to one theory, poison gases used in the war, air charged with carbon dioxide from the trenches, and gases formed from decomposing bodies and exploding munitions had all fused to form a highly toxic vapor that flu victims had inhaled. Among the other causes advanced were air stagnation, coal dust, fleas, the distemper of cats and dogs, and dirty dishwater.

3 Emergency Hospital for Influenza Patients An Emergency Hospital for Influenza Patients

The Spanish Influenza Pandemic Of (Rochester Studies In Medical History) READ ONLINE

The Spanish Influenza Pandemic Of 1918-1919 (Rochester Studies In Medical History) READ ONLINE If searched for the book The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 (Rochester Studies in Medical History)