Fear No Evil

Nurses in training during the 1918 Pandemic -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
With all of the attention being given to H1N1 in the media, it’s interesting to compare this pandemic to the notorious Spanish Flu of 1918. The Spanish Flu was named for Spain because Spain (which remained neutral in WWI) is the only country that would give flu updates during the war-time news blackout. Spanish Flu was actually world-wide. It was a form of influenza A and a subtype of H1N1 – the same lovely bug we have now.

There are lingering arguments about whether it was avian or swine, and how exactly it started. Spanish Flu raged from 1918 to 1920 and is thought to have killed 50-100 million people worldwide. A third of the world’s population was infected and it’s deemed by some to be the worst epidemic in medical history. In the USA, 500,000-675,000 people died. The statistics are sketchy because some people struck by the flu actually died from more immediate causes – like preexisting diseases or accidents.

It’s thought that the disease originated in China, came to Boston, MA where it mutated and then forged on to Brest, France. The ongoing World War I abetted the virus due to frequent troop movements, and troops living in close quarters. Some historical perspective has probably been lost, because so much more focus was given to World War I (another kind of “pandemic” where humans kill humans for territorial reasons – another blog entirely).

There are some things about Spanish Flu that were oddities in 1918 but mirror the situation today. Many of the 1918 victims were healthy young adults. Half the fatalities were people between 20 and 40 years of age. A rapid response (called a “cytokline storm”) from a healthy immune system caused young peoples’ lungs to fill with fluid. Other symptoms differed from now and were quite alarming -- bleeding from mucous membranes and the ears. The Spanish Flu was at its worst during summer months where “normal” flu outbreaks more typically happen in the winter. Spanish Flu came in two waves. The first wave was more innocuous – the second wave of late 1918 was far deadlier.

Very oddly, the Spanish Flu ended as suddenly as it started. In Philadelphia, 4,597 died one week in October; one month later there were no fatalities and almost no one with any lingering illness. Some people speculated at the time that treatments improved dramatically – but there’s no real evidence of that. More recent speculation is that the virus might have done a “self-limiting” mutation to quit killing its human hosts. It’s actually in the interest of the virus for its host to live a long life (for viral reproduction) – hence the non-fatal staying power of viruses such as chicken pox and various herpes strains.

There is a long list of well-known people who suffered from the 1918 pandemic including Walt Disney, Lillian Gish and English prime minister David Lloyd George. The Spanish Flu has resurfaced in pop culture – in David Morrell’s If I Die Before I Wake (1997) and Thomas Mullen’s Last Town on Earth (2006) which both speak to the impact on small American towns. The H1N1 that we have now is alarming by 2009 standards but has taken a comparatively paltry 5000 lives worldwide. Still, we have to wonder “what evil lurks” not just in the hearts of men, but in ordinary proximity to poultry, pigs and other well-meaning humans.

© 2009 blogSpotter