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The Influenza Pandemic of 1918
The
influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the
Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere
between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the
most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More
people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years
of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. Known
as "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" the influenza
of 1918-1919 was a global disaster.
In
the fall of 1918 the Great War in Europe was winding down
and peace was on the horizon. The Americans had joined in
the fight, bringing the Allies closer to victory against the
Germans. Deep within the trenches these men lived through
some of the most brutal conditions of life, which it seemed
could not be any worse. Then, in pockets across the globe,
something erupted that seemed as benign as the common cold.
The influenza of that season, however, was far more than a
cold. In the two years that this scourge ravaged the earth,
a fifth of the world's population was infected. The flu was
most deadly for people ages 20 to 40. This pattern of morbidity
was unusual for influenza which is usually a killer of the
elderly and young children. It infected 28% of all Americans
(Tice). An estimated 675,000 Americans died of influenza during
the pandemic, ten times as many as in the world war. Of the
U.S. soldiers who died in Europe, half of them fell to the
influenza virus and not to the enemy (Deseret News). An estimated
43,000 servicemen mobilized for WWI died of influenza (Crosby).
1918 would go down as unforgettable year of suffering and
death and yet of peace. As noted in the Journal of the American
Medical Association final edition of 1918:
"The
1918 has gone: a year momentous as the termination of the
most cruel war in the annals of the human race; a year which
marked, the end at least for a time, of man's destruction
of man; unfortunately a year in which developed a most fatal
infectious disease causing the death of hundreds 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," (12/28/1918).
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here to read more about The Influenza Pandemic of 1918.
Source:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/uda/
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