Great Influenza Book Report

The book describes a descriptive account of one of the most deadly plagues of Influenza virus that erupted in the camps of Kansas and resulted in the fatalities of more than 100 million individuals across the globe. The book narrates that the tale of great Influenza is that filled with tragedies and triumphs, which was followed by scientific innovations in preventing the prodigious number of mortalities (Barry). The author narrates that with a ripping 50% contagion rate, and symptoms capable of debilitating and consequently killing an average person easily, the disease spread like wildfire all over the world in a matter of weeks. Although patient zero was registered in Kansas on March 11, 1918, the disease was designated as "Spanish Flu" since …show more content…
The author narrates that European and American countries entered a state of massive hysteria and in many of these, it was implemented from curfew until the arrest of citizens who wondered in the street without respiratory protection. The morgues and hospitals were practically crowded with corpses, and the transfer of the body directly to industrial burners was necessary in order to get rid of them quickly. In the southern United States, entire villages disappeared. Only in October 1918, more than 300,000 people died in the United States from the flu. The lack of personnel, both public and private, led to thousands of businesses and basic services such as electricity, water and telephone were interrupted. However, the epidemic would cause much more per capita victims in Europe than in the United States, because of better management of the situation in that country. In the United States, unlike Europe, patients were transferred to large control centers, thus limiting the possibility of infection. Over time, and after millions of deaths, the massive pandemic was controlled. The book elucidates that in a later wave of the disease, mortality in the autumn of that year was much lower in Madrid than in other Spanish provinces