The Influenza Epidemic of 1918

This past year’s flu season has not been terribly severe but in 1918, that was not the case. If you are the type of person who feels the flu is not a big deal, you are horribly mistaken. What happened in 1918 is proof of the seriousness of influenza. If you have never heard of the 1918 influenza epidemic, you are not alone. Few know much about it and the danger it posed. Part of the reason is that it happened in the waning days of World War I (by the way, the more important world conflict of the 20th-century). However, the epidemic would destroy communities, crush people’s faith in the nascent science of medicine and force the survivors to drive it from their conscience.

Known, erroneously, as the Spanish Flu, the influenza outbreak of 1918 killed more people over the course of a single year than the Plague did over a four year period. It began as a bad string of illness in western Kansas but it was not until it hit Fort Riley, an Army base in central Kansas that it claimed its first fatalities. Yet, while dangerous and potentially deadly, it was still just a bad strain and kept among soldiers. The spread of the disease and its deadly mutation did not occur until soldiers from Kansas and throughout the country jammed into ships to sail across the Atlantic for the war effort. On the battlefields, the flu spread, mutated and impacted Allied and Central Power forces. As wounded and returning soldiers reached the United States, the disease began ripping through Army hospitals. It would not remain contained. Soon, it spilled out into Boston, New York and other eastern cities. The shocking thing about the 1918 influenza strain was that a healthy person could fall ill and die within a day. As the disease spread, doctors were simply not able to catch up. It was happening too fast.

As the disease entered the civilian world, it tore through communities at an astonishing speed and ferocity. An amazing characteristic of the influenza was that it seemed to target the healthiest and the strongest. Typically, a disease will feed off the weak, the very old and the very young. While they suffered, the influenza strain also struck down the hale and hearty. In Philadelphia, one day in early October saw the death of 700 and over the course of the month, 11,000 perished. A week after Minnesota recorded its first case, Minneapolis alone saw more than 1,000 cases. The spread of the disease was intensified by public gatherings for draft summons, war bonds rallies, patriotic speeches and in November 1918, the celebration of the end of the war. Over the course of the disease, it would take more than 675,000 lives – far surpassing what the U.S. loss in the combined efforts in World War I, II, Korea and Viet Nam. Worldwide, it led to the death of 25 million people.

At the onset of the epidemic, doctors were not aware of what was killing people. The first recorded deaths back in Kansas were listed as pneumonia. Once it was identified as influenza, doctors set out to find some way to cure the disease. However, in those days, doctors thought the cause of the disease was a bacterium and sought to create a vaccine. From time to time, doctors claimed to find a possible solution but nothing ever materialized or proved effective. People continued to die at an alarming rate. The end of the influenza strain was a bit of luck as the weather turned cold. November saw a huge drop in the number of deaths. Secondly, the disease simply ran through all those who were susceptible.

It is a shocking period of history but people sought to put it out of their mind as quickly as possible. Other things over the subsequent decades would occupy our time – runaway prosperity, economic depression, another war, a cold war. As an historian, I find the topic intensely interesting and does it not stoke a curiosity? There are some resources out there if one wants to delve deeper. Use it to better understand what was not presented to you, likely, in your education. Today, news media love to play up the possibility of rampant spreading diseases but seldom does the impact match their prognostications. It is to a point where we don’t take the news seriously. Yet, there was a time when the flu killed at a horrifying rate. It could happen again. It is worth your time to study.

For more information on the influenza epidemic, check out the following sources:

John M. Barry’s The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. What is so great about this source is that it also provides a history of medical research in the U.S. It was the source of much of the information in this article.

Alfred W. Crosby’s America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918.

The PBS American Experience documentary, Influenza, 1918.