Influenza 1918, PBS American Experience

[appalachiablue]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/influenza/#part01

Influenza 1918, the worst epidemic in US history, killing over 600,000 people.

In September of 1918, soldiers at an army base near Boston suddenly began to die. The cause of death was identified as influenza, but it was unlike any strain ever seen. As the killer virus spread across the country, hospitals overfilled, death carts roamed the streets and helpless city officials dug mass graves. It was the worst epidemic in American history, killing over 600,000 — until it disappeared as mysteriously as it had begun.

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Thanks for posting this - my grandmother told me she had it, remembers taking her exams at home

Obviously, she survived, but she experienced it. And I'm trying to get over the flu right now.

[appalachiablue]

10. My mother told us about the 1918 Flu Epidemic, especially since her father,

my grandfather was a young man during the time. He left college to enlist in the Army during WWI and joined the Medical Corps. After serving in the military he returned to school to study medicine and became a doctor. I'm sure the event impacted his life and career. He and my grandmother were at the age most affected, young adults age 15-40 with the healthiest immune systems, yet remained healthy and started their young family, 1919-1926.

The horrible pandemic killed an estimated 50-100 million people around the world and is still being studied for good reason.
Not! what you want to read just now, but it is of much interest. So glad your mother survived and wishing you a speedy recovery!

- 1918 Flu Epidemic, Wikipedia, Excerpts

The 1918 flu pandemic (January 1918 – December 1920) was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic, the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus.[1] It infected 500 million people around the world,[2] including remote Pacific islands and the Arctic, and resulted in the deaths of 50 to 100 million (three to five percent of the world's population),[3] making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.[4][5][6] Disease had already greatly limited life expectancy in the early 20th century. A considerable spike occurred at the time of the pandemic, specifically the year 1918. Life expectancy in the United States alone dropped by about 12 years.
Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill juvenile, elderly, or already weakened patients; in contrast, the 1918 pandemic predominantly killed previously healthy young adults.

Mortality, Around the globe
The difference between the influenza mortality age-distributions of the 1918 epidemic and normal epidemics – deaths per 100,000 persons in each age group, United States, for the interpandemic years 1911–1917 (dashed line) and the pandemic year 1918 (solid line)[45]
Three pandemic waves: weekly combined influenza and pneumonia mortality, United Kingdom, 1918–1919[46]
The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic is not known, but an estimated 10% to 20% of those who were infected died. With about a third of the world population infected, this case-fatality ratio means 3% to 6% of the entire global population died.[2] Influenza may have killed as many as 25 million people in its first 25 weeks. Older estimates say it killed 40–50 million people,[4] while current estimates say 50–100 million people worldwide were killed.[47]

This pandemic has been described as "the greatest medical holocaust in history" and may have killed more people than the Black Death.[48] It is said that this flu killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS killed in 24 years, and more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century.[11]
More, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

- Wiki, List of Noted Cases of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, Fatalities and
SURVIVORS Which Included:
Walt Disney
Great Garbo
David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister
Franz Kafka, writer
Edvard Munch, artist
Georgia O'Keefe, artist
Gen. John J. Pershing
Mary Pickford, actress
FDR
Woodrow Wilson
More, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_1918_flu_pandemic_cases

- 1918 Influenza: The Mother of All Pandemics
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3291398/

- The Deadly Virus, the Influenza Epidemic of 1918, National Archives
Excerpt
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.
More, https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/

[Rhiannon12866]

14. Wow! Thanks for all the information!

I wish now that I'd asked my grandmother more about it. I was pretty close to my grandmother and she told me so many stories, but that's all she mentioned about the 1918 flu. She born in 1900 so she was 17 or 18, she went to "normal school" which was teacher training back then - and those were the exams she was taking. She got her first job in a one-room school and some of her students were older than she was.

My grandfather also served in WWI. He was sent to France - and was older than she was, they met and married in the '20s. I'll have to ask some of my older relatives to tell me more. All I know is that all their siblings survived - and my grandfather was the eldest boy of 11!

Thanks so much for posting!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Read "The Great Infuenza" by John Barry.

Absolutely gobsmacking.

Among other things, you learn that the flu was spread because this country persisted in sending soldiers on troop ships, even though those who sent those soldiers off understood quite clearly that infected soldiers were being sent on those troop ships who would essentially kill other soldiers. It was unconscionable.

Here's another thing to keep in mind every time you here panic reports that a repeat of the 1918 epidemic could happen again: back then, most homes did not have running water. Regular handwashing was unheard of. And handwashing is the single most effective public health measure ever. I want to repeat that. Regular handwashing is the single most effective public health measure ever. (There will be a quiz on this material) Which is not to say some terrible epidemic could happen, but you really, really need to think of all of the surrounding circumstances.

Remember Ebola? Remember that one unfortunate man who'd travelled to Africa, came back with Ebola, was misdiagnosed, sent home, and then returned to the hospital to die? Yeah, that man. For the next two weeks or so his family was confined to their apartment, not even able to remove the sheets he'd been sleeping in when he'd been so sick. Want to guess how many of them got Ebola? That's right. None of them. Because Ebola isn't all that contagious unless you do things like clean the bodies of those who've died from it. Do I need to go into detail here? I hope not. Because my essential point is that normal forms of not handling bodies, waste fluids, and the like, will protect you. As will simple hand washing.

I'm not about to suggest that such measures will magically make epidemics go away, but they will mitigate them.

Quiz: What is the single most effective public health measure ever?

[KT2000]

3. I know! I know!!

Hand washing!!!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Yes!

I don't understand why modern health workers don't get it. One hundred years ago a lot of homes didn't have running water. One reason the "rule" about washing hands before a meal was there was because so few people washed their hands at all.

Another thing about the great influenza. When it hit isolated villages, so many people got sick at once that there was no one available to do something so simple as give a sick person a drink of water. And that drink of water sometimes made the difference between life and death. Which is why some small villages were totally wiped out by the influenza.

Another thing Barry discusses in some detail is the state of medicine in this country at that time. Many, many doctors were poorly trained to put it mildly. Medical schools were not very good. Rigorous training, including lab courses and actual interaction with patients hardly ever happened. Such things were just beginning in the first decade or so of the 20th century. Then WWI broke out, and the few competent doctors were snatched up by the military. Essentially, all of the even minimally competent doctors were brought into the army. The less than competent ones were left behind, and they were the ones on the front lines of the influenza epidemic in 1918.

The book also details how the training of doctors in this country drastically changed at that time, and we went from the worst training of doctors to the very best in a very short time. We also established excellent medical schools that still exist.

Amazing book. Please read it.

[KT2000]

5. I will read it

I missed the PBS show (hope it is rerun) so I will read the book. This has always interested me, especially about what was learned from it. Thanks for the information!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. I watched the show last night.

It's good, and focusses on the human element. It was first broadcast in 1998, so contains interviews with people who were children back then.

The Barry book is remarkable. It's not only about the infuenza epidemic but also about many sociological aspects of the disease and its affects. Do read it.

[appalachiablue]

11. PBS is airing this in my area on a couple stations so I expect

they will run it on other national stations now, tis' the time of year! Also, you can watch the full episode at the link above if you're set up to stream.
I posted articles above which go into more depth about the pandemic if anyone's interested. Stay well!

[get the red out]

6. Great points

I wish I had seen this documentary, my Grandfather told me about this flu hitting his family hard out in the country in eastern Kentucky (he was 6). One of his brothers died in bed with him, Papaw had it but survived. Every time he told the story the trauma of his little brother dying right next to him was overwhelming, so I have always felt a connection to the horror of this epidemic. A doctor had to ride a horse for miles out into the country to reach most families to begin with.

[appalachiablue]

12. Thanks for sharing the story of your family's experience and how very sad

for your grandfather losing his little brother. Above I just posted some articles with in-depth information and history on the affects and causes of the worst pandemic known in history. Stay well!

[pansypoo53219]

7. milwaukee had under 5 1918 flu deaths. we had a SOCIALIST mayor then.

milwaukee is a city of corner bars. many bars. the mayor basically shut EVERYTHING down. no school, no church, no bars. keep people away from each other. extreme measures. NPR had a story about why cruise ships get poop sick & carriers do not. quarantine.

i asked my grandpa if he remembered anything. his uncle was in a funeral business think. lots of caskets.

[mr_lebowski]

8. Well, assuming you're not including 'development of antibiotics' as a 'public health measure'

I suppose I'm somewhat inclined to agree.

Similarly, you must also be discounting 'development of vaccines'.

Because the development of those two things have saved many millions, if not billions ... more lives than 'hand washing' has, or ever will.

Protection of the integrity/sanitation of our food/water supplies is also far more important, IMHO.

I guess come to think of it, 'hand-washing' in most cases (i.e. unless you know you're in an environment with sick people) is over-rated. Most of my life I never worried too much about doing so except in very obvious cases (after pooping, before eating ... sometimes), and I've been 'sick' sick (like bedridden) roughly 2 times in the last 30 years.

Just sayin'

On edit: As a side note, I think excessive use of anti-bacterial soaps and cleaning products, as well as the obsession some parents have about raising their kids as 'germ free' as possible ... is a terrible idea. Kids need exposure to all kinds of germs when they're young. You don't do them any favors by trying to raise them all 'clean' unless they have immune system or similar problems when they're young. If we needed to grow up 'clean' to survive ... we'd never have survived as a species to this point.

Think about it ... NO other animals 'live their lives' with even 1/100th the 'sanitation' that humans do, even in poor countries. And we're animals, too. Children should not be over-protected from 'germs', it's not good for them.

[appalachiablue]

13. Agree about the importance of vaccines, food and water sanitation

and the need to hand wash if around potential contaminants. Yes, children do need to spend more time outdoors around animals, plants and nature to be exposed to 'germs' so they develop healthy immune systems.

Antibiotic misuse, 80% of which is for animal agriculture in the US helps fatten up chickens, hogs and cattle for quicker 'production' and ward off diseases that arise in filthy, crowded conditions too common in factory farms. The post-WWII modern industrial food system which employs too many pesticides and toxins is linked to health problems and diseases and needs major reform IMO. And people are getting wise to this and making changes for healthier, more natural food.