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11/28/2003 Archived Entry: "FLU PANDEMIC...25 TO 37 MILLION DIED"

FLU PANDEMIC...25 TO 37 MILLION DIED

There have been many recent warnings from researchers that we're due for another flu pandemic within the next ten years. They talk about the pandemic of 1918-1919 that hit right after WWI and although I haven't been around THAT long, I remember my parents, relatives and friends talking about it. George Fairchild was a good friend of ours who happened to be at Camp Funston/ Ft. Riley at that time where thousands died. He survived because he made his way back home to Ellsworth where he was nursed back to good health by his wife. There were many from Ellsworth and the surrounding area who survived the same way, but many did not.

It all started on the morning of March 11, 1918 at Camp Funston, Kansas.

A company cook named Albert Mitchell reported to the infirmary with typical flu-like symptoms - a low-grade fever, mild sore throat, slight headache, and muscle aches. Bed rest was recommended.

By noon, 107 soldiers were sick. Within two days, 522 people were sick. Many were gravely ill with severe pneumonia.

Then reports started coming in from other military bases around the country. Thousands of sailors docked off the East Coast were sick.

Within a week, the influenza was hitting isolated places, such as the island of Alcatraz. Within seven days, every state in the Union had been infected.

Then it spread across the Atlantic. By April, French troops and civilians were infected. By mid-April, the disease had spread to China and Japan. By May, the virus was spread throughout Africa and South America.

The actual killer was the pneumonia that accompanied the infection.

In Philadelphia, 158 out of every 1000 people died. 148 out of 1000 in Baltimore. 109 out of 1000 in Washington, D.C.

The cause is unknown, but today researchers still say they think like other serious viruses it goes from birds to swine where it mutates into a horrible virus. These are the deadliest of all viruses. Eighteen months after the disease appeared, the flu bug vanished and has never shown up again. Both the Asian flu (1957) and the Hong Kong flu (1968), which were not as deadly, mutated from pig viruses.

The United States death toll was a total of 850,000 people, making it an area of the world that was least devastated by this virus. Sixty percent of the Eskimo population was wiped out in Nome, Alaska. 80-90% of the Samoan population was infected, many of the survivors dying from starvation (they lacked the energy to feed themselves).

Luxury ocean liners from Europe would arrive in New York with 7% less passengers than they embarked with. The confined area of the ship was especially conducive to the spread of the disease.

In the end, 25 million people had died. Some estimates put the number as high as 37 million.

The scary part is that it could happen again - and we're not prepared for it. It takes six months to develop a vaccine. We aren't prepared for the next outbreak and researchers say it is coming.

Scary thought.