1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic during World War I

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Every year, flu viruses make people sick. Even a garden-variety flu may kill people, but usually only the very young or the very old. In 1918, the flu mutated into something much more deadly. Infecting 500 million people and killing 50-100 million of them, the strain of that type of flu was hastened by World War 1, which increased the lethality of the virus, giving that flu many opportunities to spread during World War 1. At the time that the flu was spreading, science wasn’t advanced enough to find a cure, and medical personnel was extremely helpless when it came to trying to fight the disease. Personnel, however, did find that the 1918 flu involved the H1N1 virus that kills through a cytokine storm (an overreaction of the bodies immune system). No one is quite sure exactly how the Spanish Flu began or where it originated. Some researchers and scientists have pointed to origins in China, while others say it originated in Kansas. The most common first case occurred in Fort Riley. Fort Riley, in Kansas, was a military outpost where new recruits were trained before being sent to Europe to fight in World War 1. On March 11, 1918, Private Albert Gitchell, who was a company cook, came down with symptoms that seemed to be a simple bad cold. Because of his symptoms, Gitchell went to get checked at the infirmary. After going to the infirmary, he was isolated. An hour after Gitchell was isolated, several additional soldiers had come down with the same symptoms as Gitchell, and were isolated as well (1). Even though the infirmary would isolate everyone with those “bad cold” symptoms, this extremely contagious sickness spread quickly through Fort Riley, with suspicions of some type of flu. Five weeks after these flu like symptoms started ra... ... middle of paper ... ...of thousands of human beings. Medical science for four and one-half years devoted itself to putting men on the firing line and keeping them there. Now it must turn with its whole might to combating the greatest enemy of all-infectious disease,” (2). The people who were still healthy when the epidemic hit had to isolate themselves from the infected people so they could remain healthy, and the people who were hit with the epidemic had to be isolated from everyone so they could have the best chance they could of getting healthy. It was a bad time to be around. No matter where a person went, there was always at least one person in the same located who was infected with the Spanish Flu. After the epidemic ended, those who fought through and made it to the end were relieved it was over, and those who died fought hard to stay alive, but were infected too badly to recover.

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