History 4

Mohammed ALAjele

Assignment -1-

1. The origin of the Spanish Influenza

2. What measures the United States adopted in hoping to "bend the curve" of the crisis,
Martial Law? Curfews? Quarantines? 
3. Ramifications in terms of human toll and, if any, vaccines and improvements made by
the United States' healthcare community subsequent to quelling the virus

The Spanish Flu as it is derived from the name had thought to be originated in Spain and
spread in France , Italy and the rest of Europe. However, This is not true. It is only through
trading and commerce has spread throughout America On March 4, 1918, Albert Gitchel, a
cook at Camp Funston in Kansas, was afflicted by coughing, fever and headaches. His was one
of the first established cases in the history of the so-called Spanish flu. Within three weeks,
1100 soldiers had been hospitalized, and thousands more were affected [Wever PC, van
Bergen L. Death, 2014].
The pandemic before it can be called pandemic was in form of waves , a first and a second
wave and a third one. These waves were just making people sick mildly for a short period of
time before it returns to strike and becomes deadly. It is important to realize that there were
in fact two linked epidemics—influenza and subsequent bacterial pneumonia—which together
generated high case mortality rates. Characteristics of the influenza strain determined its
contagiousness.[Patterson,KD 1986].
 

Howard Markel and colleagues have asked just that question about ‘nonpharmaceutical
interventions’ carried out by 43 U.S. cities from 8 September 1918 to 22 February 1919—the
time limits of the second and third waves of epidemic influenza in those years. They asked
whether city by city variation in mortality varied according to nonvaccine public health
interventions. The interventions included mandatory[Patterson KD,1986].
They found that layers or density of gauze of sufficient thickness to stop bacilli also made
breathing difficult. The wearer would breathe around the edges and otherwise remove the
mask as soon as possible. Thinner gauze was more comfortable but of little use. They also
surveyed users, and found many problems. A large number of masks were improperly made;
some covered only the nose or only the mouth; many people wore masks in public as required
by law but put them aside when out of view in private gatherings[ Kellog,WH , Mcmillian ,G].

And as of the tolls  there have been some 3,000 to 49,000 flu-related U.S. deaths annually,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With the shortages in physicians
and medical staff due to WWI , Officials in some communities imposed quarantines, ordered
citizens to wear masks and shut down public places, including schools, churches and theaters.
People were advised to avoid shaking hands and to stay indoors, libraries put a halt on lending
books and regulations were passed banning spitting.

According to The New York Times, during the pandemic, Boy Scouts in New York City
approached people they’d seen spitting on the street and gave them cards that read: “You are
in violation of the Sanitary Code.”1 Pretty much all of the measures possible were made by the
governments of the states to try at least lessen the devastating effect of the pandemic hoping
to rid off it soon.

Since 1918, the world has experienced three additional pandemics, in 1957, 1968, and most
recently in 2009. These subsequent pandemics were less severe and caused considerably
lower mortality rates than the 1918 pandemic.[Barbara,Jester et al, 2019] The 1957 H2N2
pandemic and the 1968 H3N2 pandemic each resulted in an estimated 1 million global deaths,
while the 2009 H1N1 pandemic resulted in fewer than 0.3 million deaths in its first year.3,4
This perhaps begs the question of whether a high severity pandemic on the scale of 1918
could occur in modern times.

1
The New York Times