1918 Spanish Flu Research Paper

In two years between 1918 and 1919, A pandemic of influenza swept mercilessly over the planet, killing millions which stood in its path. Miraculously, the exact origin of the pandemic is unclear. What is exceedingly clear, however, is that often the actions of man aided in the spread of the virus, whether due to inadvertent endangerment, close quarters, religious principles, or failure to recognize the true threat that influenza posed.

The book “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, written by John M. Barry, covers the progression of the Spanish influenza, especially in the United States. Barry focuses not only on the influenza itself, though, but also on the social influences that allowed the virus to flourish. The book covers how medical practices in the United States had risen up just in time to combat the virus, but, due to societal issues and the war, the doctors struggled in areas where they should have been successful.

The first wave of the 1918 pandemic appeared in San Sebastián, Spain. Within two months, 8 million of Spain’s residents were ill, and the disease had spread on a global scale. Soon it became known as the Spanish flu, because it received the most press there. The other nations had their media tied up with wartime censorship; Spain, a noncombatant, had no such measures in place (Kolata, Flu 9-10). The first wave of the 1918 pandemic appeared in America without much comment. The media was more interested in attention-grabbing news about topics like the war than the rather unremarkable flu. Most people were afflicted with symptoms for a few days before recovering and moving on. The only aspect of the flu that was remarkable was the condition of the lungs from the victims who had died from the flu and pneumonia (Crosby 17-21).

The Spanish flu in World War I was a lot worse and had a way higher death rate than the common flu today. Therefore, they should not even be compared. It is so much different because during war everything was so dirty and everyone was always crammed in the trenches: “World War 1 trenches were dirty, smelly and riddled with disease. For soldiers life in the trenches meant living in fear” (WWI facts). This made it very easy to catch illnesses especially because the flu was so contagious. The symptoms of the Spanish flu were very similar to the symptoms of a common flu: “Normal flu symptoms of fever, nausea, aches and diarrhea” (NPR). Although they were similar is was still way more deadly to have it during World War I. Everyone already had such

People had no hope of ending this terrible plague. Many doctors and nurses were doing their best to help cure the fever and end the Yellow Fever madness forever. All was lost until the cold front eliminated Philadelphia’s mosquito population and the death toll fell to 20 per day by October 26. People were happy that the Yellow Fever had finally ended. Over the years better medical treatments had been improved over the years. They began to use treatment that didn’t involve letting a person bleed to death or any other dangerous treatments that could hurt someone. Today, there is a vaccine that prevents the Yellow Fever around world.

was what made it especially dangerous, there was no known way to control the disease and it was able

In the early 1900’s medicine was making some steps closer into some great improvements for health and better understanding of the human body. Doctors with sufficient knowledge of the human body and cures for diseases and viruses were scarce. People were much more concerned with government and politics, than health and medicine, until one of the greatest and most grotesque lethal pandemics that’s struck the earth in human history. This pandemic the “Spanish Flu” spread so rapidly and had an extremely high mortality rate. This was caused by the close contact of humans and poor cleanliness and sanitation, and the host (virus) and the body taking harsh action

In three weeks, the Spanish flu spread quickly killing about 50 million to 100 million people around the world. It seemed to target the young and healthy, it was deadly to 20 to 35 years old. This was unusual because it mostly effects kids and the elderly. The outbreak lasted from March 1918 to June 1920 nearly killing (3% of the World's population at the time) and infecting more than 500,000,000 people. The virus even spread to the Artic and some Pacific Islands.

The book The Great Influenza by John Barry takes us back to arguably one of the greatest medical disasters in human history, the book focuses on the influenza pandemic which took place in the year 1918. The world was at war in the First World War and with everyone preoccupied with happenings in Europe and winning the war, the influenza pandemic struck when the human race was least ready and most distracted by happenings all over the world. In total the influenza pandemic killed over a hundred million people on a global scale, clearly more than most of the deadliest diseases in modern times. John Barry leaves little to imagination in his book as he gives a vivid description of the influenza pandemic of 1918 and exactly how this pandemic affected the human race. The book clearly outlines the human activities that more or less handed the human race to the influenza on a silver platter. “There was a war on, a war we had to win” (Barry, p.337). An element of focus in the book is the political happenings back at the time not only in the United States of America but also all over the world and how politicians playing politics set the way for perhaps the greatest pandemic in human history to massacre millions of people. The book also takes an evaluator look at the available medical installations and technological proficiencies and how the influenza pandemic has affected medicine all over the world.

pandemics: the Spanish flu of 1918, the Asian flu, the Hong Kong flu and the terror and

The 1918 influenza outbreak remains one of the world’s greatest pandemic, it caused more casualties than the Nazis and far more than the two atomic bombs that dropped on Japan . It also hastened the end of World War I. The influenza virus arose among the army camps of Kansas, infected soldiers carried the disease by rail to army and navy centers on the East and South Coast. The epidemic continued to spread globally, hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers who embarked to France carried the virus to Europe and the British Isles, the influenza then moved to Africa via Sierra Leone, where the British had a major coaling station. Dockworkers who helped in refueling the ships contracted the infection and they spread the highly contagious virus

Flu takes place during the year of 1918, when humanity was in the fight against the influenza pandemic. Unbothered by the flu at first because it was only known as a four day flu, life went on as normal, but when the second wave of the flu hit people began to become sick and die. The flu hit its peak when it had killed more people than WWI and WWII combined. “And since

Most types of diseases are very different from one another like the way they spread, symptoms, and many more. One type of disease that has a different impact to AIDS is the Spanish flu of 1918 because scientists tried to use models to prevent the disease from spreading. The Spanish flu killed about one-third of the human population during the outbreak in 1918. Before the major outbreak, the flu mainly affected the military, which is now killing healthy young adults because of how easily the disease can be transmitted. In contrast, some females increase their exposure to AIDS by contributing to the sex work as their survival strategy when their family is in a financial crisis, putting their own lives in danger. These two diseases have a contrasting

Many historians call the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 the deadliest disease outbreak of all time. As many as 100 million people were killed as a direct result of this disease (Taubenberger 1). The Great Pandemic affected everyone, the prosperous and the poor, developed and underdeveloped nations. Entire villages in Alaska were wiped out because of the viral disease (Public Health Service). The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 was caused by World War One, a high volume of immigration, and poor sanitary conditions.

The rigid control of the issue and disregard for the truth by the government had dangerous short-term and long-term consequences. For instance, the local officials told half-truths or outright lies to avoid damaging morale and the war efforts. The role of the press was only to assist but not to challenge or criticize them. To prevent the public from getting a feeling that they were being deceived or given false information, the information to the press was not censored but was designed in a manner that it complies with the government propaganda machine. Officials routinely insisted that it was ordinary influenza, not the Spanish flu. By the time the epidemic was reaching its peak, the officials were assuring the public almost daily that the worst was over. The public did not have a clue that it was only