BY Grace gregg“Two hours after admission they have the mahogany spots over the cheek bones, and a few hours later you can begin to see the cyanosis extending from their ears and spreading all over the face, until it is hard to distinguish the coloured men from the white. It is only a matter of a few hours then until death comes, and it is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate. It is horrible.” Physician N. Roy Grist, 1918 During the time period of World War I, there was often inadequate medical training for doctors in the field of health. There was no proper education about the ideas of germ theory, an important scientific theory that stated viruses and disease were spread through microorganisms, and that sicknesses were not gained by random events. Due to this lack of education, many doctors and nurses during World War I were unequipped with the knowledge of why the disease was spreading so quickly, and often led to keeping people in close quarters with those infected. Another issue of the time was that there were no antibiotics, often leading to the use of alcohol to sooth ailments. Doctors sadly did not know or did not care that such medical practices aided in the spread of influenza. There were three waves of the spanish flu, with the third one lasting up until the 1920’s. Many believe the origin of the spanish flu to be located in Haskell County, Kansas, where a physician noted that those infected with influenza experienced much more severe symptoms than previously recorded, and also noted the severity in the fact that many young men were being infected even though it was quite unusual for those other than elderly and infants to be afflicted by influenza. In march of 1918, soldiers who had returned to Camp Funston, Kansas from Haskell County were believed to have brought back the deadly strain of influenza with them. During the time period, Camp Funston was under construction and was low on resources, during a particularly cold winter men were packed into poorly heated tents. These circumstances mixed with poor sanitation and inadequate medical facilities were fuel to the fire that was the spread of the influenza virus. On March 4th, a cook at the camp was reported to be ill with a volatile form of influenza and within three weeks 1,100 soldiers displayed symptoms. From Camp Funston soldiers moved to camps all around the world, spreading the disease to every foreign nation in contact. The Spanish Flu gained its name mostly in part of the neutral position held by Spain. In almost every country news of influenza was covered up in order to maintain morale. This was especially prevalent in the US, where President Woodrow Wilson had passed the Sedition Act, which permitted the arrest of anyone who would spout what was deemed to be harmful language toward America. In Spain, newspapers were free to publish whatever they wished, leading to large amounts of publications about influenza that rose in popularity, all of this led to the new form of influenza to be deemed “the Spanish Flu”. In the second wave recorded for the Spanish Flu, it was recorded that this wave was far more lethal. The first cases for this second wave were recorded in Camp Devens, Massachusetts, where within a few hours after showing symptoms, soldiers appeared blue in the face due to their lungs becoming unable to supply oxygen through the bloodstream. The symptoms of this second wave were brutal, men were in such agonizing pain that their afflictions were initially confused with Dengue Fever, coined “Breakbone Fever'' because of its excruciating muscle pains. Men would bleed from their mucus membranes, often blood would shoot out from their noses. Some men would cough so hard that they would rip the muscles in their diaphragm. Some describing these events in letters stated that men would enter the clinic, and in a few hours be dead, which was unheard of. Many scientists believe that this new wave was the result of an antigenic shift, in which the virus would replicate and mutate. Influenza is what is known as a Retrovirus, which is a virus that is made up of RNA that has a high rate of mutation. This high rate of mutation causes the flu to be constantly changing, making the human body’s job in pathogenic defense rather difficult. Evidence of this second wave being a mutation rather than a whole new virus was shown in the fact that soldiers previously infected with the first wave of influenza exhibited immunities. After Camp Devins, the virus once again spread, this time all across the U.S. A prominent case of this second wave occurred in Philadelphia, where the city’s prominent health official refused to stop public parades, believing that cancelling them would lower public morale ,which was deemed more important. The major issue of this decision is the fact that a person infected with influenza spreads the virus before they show any symptoms, meaning that healthy presenting people in these crowded parades were unknowingly spreading the deadly Spanish flu. One day, there was a particularly massive parade, against all advice from other health officials. Within two to three days after the parade, numbers exploded into the thousands. In one day, it was recorded that 759 people had died due to influenza, prior to the outbreak, all deaths in the city averaged to be 485 per week. This form of influenza caused a not yet recorded level of death. The normal influenza virus primarily causes death in the elderly and in children, yet, this new strain caused a large and primary amount of death in the ages of 20-25. This new morbidity curve was especially problematic given that young men on the front lines were dying at rapid rates. Many of the causes of large spread of influenza on the home front was caused by the idea that not talking about the flu protected you from the flu. It was common to not spread treatment information and news about influenza in an attempt to keep up local morale about the war. Overall, the implication that troops and citizens must keep up hope about the war rather than understand the importance of their own health and safety was a leading cause in the spread of influenza across the world for each wave. References:
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