Spanish Flu Pandemic In 1918

The influenza or flu pandemic of 1918 to 1919, the deadliest in modern history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide–about one-third of the planet’s population at the time–and estimates place the number of victims anywhere from 25 to 100 million. More than 25 percent of the U.S. population became sick, and some 675,000 Americans died during the pandemic. The 1918 flu was first observed in Europe, the U.S. and parts of Asia before swiftly spreading around the world. Surprisingly, many flu victims were young, otherwise healthy adults. At the time, there were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat this killer flu strain or prevent its spread. In the U.S., citizens were ordered to wear masks, and schools, theaters and other public

places were shuttered. Researchers later discovered what made the 1918 pandemic so deadly: In many victims, the influenza virus had invaded their lungs and caused pneumonia.
The first wave of the 1918 pandemic occurred in the spring and was generally mild. The sick, who experienced such typical flu symptoms as chills, fever and fatigue, usually recovered after several days, and the number of reported deaths was low. However, a second, highly contagious wave of influenza appeared with a vengeance in the fall of that same year. Victims died within hours or days of their symptoms appearing, their skin turning blue and their lungs filling with fluid that caused them to suffocate. In just one year, 1918, the average life expectancy in America plummeted by a dozen years. This new, deadlier flu acted very strangely. It seemed to target the young and healthy, and was exceptionally deadly to 20 to 35 year olds. In three waves from March 1918 to the Spring of 1919, this deadly flu spread quickly around the world, infecting hundreds of millions of people and killing upwards of 5% of the world's population.
No one is quite sure exactly where the Spanish flu first struck. Some researchers have pointed to origins in China, while others have traced it back to a small town in Kansas. The best recorded first case occurred in Fort Riley. Fort Riley is located in Kansas and was where new recruits were trained before being sent to Europe to fight in World War I. On March 11, 1918, Private Albert Gitchell, a company cook, came down with symptoms that at first appeared to be a bad cold. Gitchell went to the infirmary and was isolated. Within an hour, several additional soldiers had come down with the same symptoms and were isolated as well.
Despite the attempt to isolate those with symptoms, this extremely contagious flu quickly spread through Fort Riley. After five weeks, 1,127 soldiers at Fort Riley had been stricken with the Spanish flu and 46 of them had died.
While the first wave of the Spanish flu had been extremely contagious, the second wave of the Spanish flu was both incredibly contagious and even more deadly.

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

could.
Soon, reports of the same flu were noted in other military camps around the United States. Shortly thereafter, the flu infected soldiers on board transport ships. Although not intentional, American troops brought this new flu with them to Europe. Beginning in mid-May, the flu started to strike French soldiers as well. The flu traveled across Europe, infecting people in nearly every country. When the flu rampaged through Spain, the Spanish government publicly announced the epidemic. Spain was the first country to be struck by the flu that was not involved in World War I. Therefore, it was the first country not to censor their health reports. Since most people first heard about the flu from its attack on Spain, the new flu was named the Spanish flu. The Spanish flu then spread to Russia, India, China, and Africa. By the end of July 1918, after having infected people all around the world, this first wave of the Spanish flu appeared to be dying out.
The victims of the 1918 Spanish flu suffered very much.

Within hours of feeling the first symptoms of extreme fatigue, fever, and headache, victims would start turning blue. Sometimes the blue color became so pronounced that it was difficult to determine a patient's original skin color. Patients would cough with such force that some even tore their abdominal muscles. Foamy blood came their mouths and noses. A few bled from their ears, and vomiting and losing control of their bladders and bowels was not uncommon. The Spanish flu struck so suddenly and severely that many of its victims died within hours of coming down with their first symptom, though most deaths happened within the first day or two. People were terrified about getting the flu. Some cities ordered everyone to wear masks. Spitting and coughing in public was prohibited. Schools and theaters were closed. People also tried their own homemade prevention remedies, such as eating raw onions, keeping a potato in their pocket, or wearing a bag of camphor around their neck. Many an entrepreneur tried their hand at selling remedies that they assured the public at large would either keep them from becoming ill or cure them if they already were. Bodies piled up as the massive deaths of the epidemic ensued. Besides the lack of health care workers and medical supplies, there was a shortage of coffins, morticians and gravediggers. The conditions in 1918 were not so far removed from the Black Death in the era of the

bubonic plague of the Middle Ages.
Though many have forgotten the great Pandemic that swept the world in 1918 and 1919, and it is given little mention in history books and is often overshadowed by the events of World War I, the Spanish influenza had a great effect on the people. These people who would live forever with the grief of having lost so many friends and loved ones, began to pick up the pieces of their lives and prepared to face what the future had in store for them. As Katherine Anne Porter writes, “No more war, no more plague, only the dared silence that follows the ceasing of heavy guns; noiseless houses with the shades drawn, empty streets, the dead cold light of tomorrow. Now there would be time for everything.”