Pandemics cause an increase in medicine and the health care industry. When a pandemic outbreak occurs hospitals are overflowing, and researchers are hard at work searching for a cure. The Spanish Flu was no different. Doctors stated they were too busy trying to fight the disease to record the overflow of patients. Drug stores businesses increased during the Spanish Flu while other businesses were failing. Hospitals were so overcrowded that other buildings had to be converted into hospitals. Although the health care industry was booming; it suffered shortages of workers just like other industries, when the physicians themselves contracted the flu. Due to the shortage of physicians some hospitals were staffed with medical school students. Governments role during a pandemic is informing the public. The Department of Health is a government lead department responsible for preparedness and …show more content…
Pandemics create fear in a society which leads to discrimination, isolation, and a loss of freedom due to strict government public health policies. Pandemics cause those who are affected with the disease to be treated as outcasts. People are afraid of the economic impact, and the health of their loved ones. Governments are fearful for public safety so they increase surveillance, control, and enforce quarantines which results in a loss of independence. Government officials uproot families due to quarantine requirements, which cause panic and have psychological impacts. The Spanish Flu generated many tragedies by wiping out families and leaving behind widows and orphans. Bodies were piling up at funeral homes; which lead some people to dig graves for their own family members. In some communities everyday life came to a stop, because people were afraid to even go outside. Since this pandemic occurred during World War I many people were suspicious that it was a form of germ warfare produced by the
What soon came to be known as the Spanish influenza came also to be known as the "worst epidemic the United States has ever known." More soldiers from the war died from this influenza than from combat on the field. One of the earliest victims of the flu came from sailors who resided on the Receiving Ship at Commonwealth Pier in Boston (August 1918) in which the situation gave the flu the advantage of eventually spreading throughout the civilian population. But of course, people were first advised that there was nothing to worry about. According to "Dr. William Hassler, Chief of San Francisco's Board of Health had gone so far as to predict that the flu would not even reach the city."3 But within such urban, crowded cities such as Boston and Philadelphia, it was inevitable that this illness would turn into an epidemic. In Philadelphia of September 1918, new cases of influenza were recorded from the civilian population days after a parade. As a result, Philadelphia was forced to admit that the city has fallen under the Spanish influenza epidemic.4 The severity of this epidemic began to become apparent and so precautions were made--any public places in which crowds of people were able to accumulate were considered "off limits.
The Black Plague still to this day remains one of the worst epidemics in known history. When the plague first hit most people weren’t too concerned, thinking that it would be cured and it wasn’t anything to spectacular. That thought quickly changed as the epidemic spread like wildfire and killed most of the people who caught it very quickly. It wiped out over a quarter of Europe and surrounding countries and no one knew where it came from. Many people thought that because it was incurable and killed so efficiently that this was the apocalypse starting. At this point in history, many theories revolved around religious beliefs and the fact that everyone thought God had a role in almost everything, natural and unnatural. Two of the main religions
In late August 1918, the second wave of the Spanish flu struck three port cities across the world at nearly the same time. Boston in the state of Massachusetts, Brest, a city in France and Freetown, Sierra Leone were all stricken at the same time and the impact was felt swiftly. Hospitals quickly became overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of patients. When hospitals filled up, tent hospitals were erected on lawns. Nurses and doctors were already in short supply because so many of them had gone to Europe to help with the war effort. In desperate need, hospitals asked for volunteers. Even knowing they were risking their own lives by helping these contagious victims, many people, especially women, signed up anyway to help as best they
The influenza, also known as the Spanish Flu, is affecting roughly all of northern California economically and socially whether San Franciscans notice it or not. Several schools, churches, and buildings are closed due to preventive orders by authorities. Insurance companies and the Government are spiraling downwards financially as they become responsible for the victims of this deadly influenza. Moreover, ordinances mandated the wearing of gauze masks in public places.
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.
In the fourteenth century many events happened that changed and shaped society, some more disastrous than others. Each event had its own effect on the way society would continue from that point on, and each event made irrevocable changes to society. The Black Death is an event that began in the fourteenth century that had a huge destabilizing impact on society and the way people lived their lives. It can be considered the most traumatic event of the fourteenth century.
No matter what, where, or who you are, water is a necessary component to keeping any organism alive. Although water is essential for life, in many places, clean drinking water is hard to find. There are many consequences to drinking contaminated water. Every year, three to five million people are attacked by water-borne diseases and over 100,000 of them die. One fatal disease that can kill within hours is cholera.
...influenza pandemic in one way or another; the use of quarantines were extremely prevalent among them. Also, the pandemic is directly responsible for the creation of many health organizations across the globe. The organizations help track and research illnesses across the globe. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for example, strive to prevent epidemics and pandemics. They also provide a governing body with directives to follow in case an outbreak does occur, and if one shall occur the efforts of organizations across the globe will be crucial for its containment. It is amazing that with modern medicine and proper organization that influenza still manages to make its appearance across the globe annually.
Although it’s still unknown exactly where the specific strain of influenza that caused the pandemic came from, the 1918 flu was first observed in Europe, the U.S., and parts of Asia before spreading around the world in a matter of months. Spain was one of the earliest countries to be hit by the disease, giving it the name the Spanish Flu, despite the fact that it wasn’t isolated in one place. An estimated 20 million to 50 million victims were killed by the flu, though other estimates run as high as 100 million. It’s impossible to know exact numbers due to the lack of medical records kept at the time. Surprisingly, many of these victims were previously healthy, young adults that were normally resistant to that type of contagious disease. Like many other illnesses during this time, doctors had no idea what caused the flu or how to treat it because there were no effective vaccines or drugs to treat the flu. Making matters worse, World War l had left most of America with a shortage of physicians, and many of those available came down with the flu themselves. Schools and homes had to be used as makeshift hospitals run by medical students because hospitals in some areas were so crammed with patients. The public health departments imposed quarantines and ordinances in an attempt to confine the spread of the disease. Citizens were ordered to wear
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 had a major effect on the public health in America at the time. Coordination between different levels and branches of government improved communication regarding the spread of influenza, improved the amount of people in hospitals, increased the spread of vaccines, and led to improvements in infection control and containment of the flu. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1997248/).
At the time, the Influenza of 1918 was called the Spanish Flu. Spain was not involved in the expanding great war (i.e., World War I) and therefore was not censoring it's press. However, Germany, Britain, and America were censoring their newspapers for anything that would lower morale. Therefore, Spain was the first country to publish accounts of the pandemic (Barry 171 and Furman 326), even though the pandemic most likely started in either France or the United States. It was also unique in it's deadliness; it “killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century” (Barry 5). In the United States, the experience during the pandemic varied from location to location. Some areas were better off whereas some were hit horribly by the disease, such as Philadelphia. It also came as a shock to many, though some predicted it's coming; few thought it would strike with the speed and lethality that it did. Though the inherent qualities of the flu enabled its devastation of the country, the response to the flu was in part responsible as well. The response to the pandemic was reasonable, given the dire situation, but not sufficient enough to prevent unnecessary death and hardship, especially in Philadelphia.
In the United States alone over 700,000 people died, which is greater than the total number of American deaths in both World Wars, The Korean War, and Vietnam, combined. One of the major takeaways from studying the flu epidemic is that it offers a real-life example of what impact population shocks have on economies. Major plaques such as the black plaque lack the data required to arrive at a conclusive analysis, while economic theory is too ambiguous to accurately model the situation. In the case of the 1918 flu epidemic, known commonly as the Spanish Flu, records exist which allow economists to draw conclusions on the impact of population shocks on the world economy. With every pandemic, the initial result is the death of a substantial portion of the population of the impacted area.
Infectious diseases also called as communicable diseases are caused by pathogenic microorganisms (such as bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi), can be spread directly or indirectly from one person to another.
Beitsch et al. (2006) also conveys the main functions of state public health institutions, which include the assessment of diseases, policy development, and the commitment to health protection and promotion activities. While Brumback and Malecki (1996) reveal that the role of public health agencies is to assess and analyse public health problems, form policies, layout development, and implement
The Black Plague (1348-1350) was the biggest tragedy Europe has ever faced because of the social and economic downfalls, which caused a huge loss of millions of people due to the terrible disease. The Black Plague was the largest epidemic that Europe has ever seen; it killed off fifty percent of their society all around. The economy was corrupt and it caused inflation. The Black Plague destroyed the social standings within society, and also the origin of why there were so many deaths in Europe.