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| Influenza! How to avoid it! How to care for those who have it! ... What to do until the doctor comes! / Oakland Health Dept., Vault B-168, courtesy, California Historical Society, Vault_B-168.jpg. https://flic.kr/p/itmLN2 |
I had a little bird
Its name was Enza
I opened the window
And in-flu-enza
According
to Flu.gov, the Spanish flu of 1918 killed “an approximate 50 million
people, nearly 675,000 in the United States alone. 20%-40% of the worldwide
population grew ill.”
“Illness
from the 1918 flu pandemic, also known as the Spanish flu, came on quickly.
Some people felt fine in the morning but died by nightfall. People who caught
the Spanish flu but did not die from it often died from complications caused by
bacteria, such as pneumonia.” Mortality rates among healthy adults between the
ages of 20-50 were the highest.
How did the Influenza pandemic of 1918 affect your family? Did your family have a soldier who died from the flu? What about those on the home front? Local newspapers will tell the story of how bad the flu was in your ancestor's community. Everyone knew someone with the flu and precautions became an everyday part of life. Avoiding group settings and wearing masks became routine.
Have you thought about telling your family's influenza story?
Timeline
March
11, 1918 In the morning, a soldier at Fort Riley, Kansas reports of having
fever, sore throat, and headache. By noon that day 100 soldiers are ill. By the
end of the week 500.*
September
28, 1918 First Alabama case reported in
Huntsville.**
October
13 1918 Huntsville, Alabama left with one pharmacist and no physicians because
of the flu**
October
31, 1918 “The crime rate in Chicago drops by 43 percent. Authorities attributed
the drop to the toll that influenza was taking on the city’s potential
lawbreakers.”*
December
4, 1918 An estimated 300,000 to 350,000 civilian deaths can be attributed to
the influenza and pneumonia since September 15. The War Department indicates
20,000 soldiers have died from the epidemic.*
1919 The
epidemic continues.*
Additional Resources:
Websites
Alabama
Public Health – 1918 Influenza in Alabama Timeline
American
Experience – Timeline: Influenza Across America in 1918
American
Red Cross – Red Cross Response To One Of The Biggest Disease Outbreaks In History
Flu.gov
– Pandemic Flu History
Iowa
Pathways – The Great Flu
Vermont
Historical Society – The 1918 Flu Epidemic
Books
Barry, John
M. The Great Influenza:The Epic Story of
the Deadliest Plague in History. New York:Penguin Books, 2005.
Crosby,
Alfred W. America’s Forgotten Pandemic:
The Influenza of 1918. New York:Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Collier,
Richard. The Plague of the Spanish Lady:
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919. London:Macmillan, 1974.
Kolata,
Gina. Flu:The Story of the Great
Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It. New
York:Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.
Phillips,
Howard and Killingray, David (eds). The
Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19:New Perspectives. New York: Routledge,
2003.
*“Timeline: Influenza Across America 1918,” American
Experience (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/timeline/influenza/:
accessed 2 November 2016).
**“1918
Influenza in Alabama Timeline,” Alabama
Public Health (http://www.adph.org/pandemicflu/index.asp?id=1380:
accessed 2 November 2016).
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