After two and a half years of managing to avoid war, American neutrality ended in 1917, which caused more than four million military personnel to be deployed into foreign nations. Of those four million United States’ citizens, about 110,000 of them died. However, 43,000 of those soldiers did not die in battle, but were killed silently, in the most brutal way possible; the influenza virus. This virus gave victims the symptoms of a normal head cold, except because of an overreaction of the immune system, fluid gathered in the lungs which resulted in the development of pneumonia. The H1N1 virus was known best as the Spanish Flu and even though it most likely originated in China, the first reports of the virus came from Spanish Newspapers, while
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The Influenza outbreak of 1918 spread rapidly and was so detrimental to the economy because of the subpar initial reaction to the virus, the high infectivity and mortality rate, and the inability to fill common civilian jobs after and during the epidemic.
Due to the poor containment and treatment of the virus by the government, the first strain of the virus spread rapidly and evolved into an incredibly fatal strain, allowing the Spanish Flu to become the deadliest pandemic in American history. The flu was able to spread so quickly because many experts thought it was harmless and didn’t take precautions to prevent the transmission. John Barry, in his book The Great Influenza, explains how the virus spread throughout America. When the “disease began jumping from army camp to army camp and occasionally …show more content…
Instead of trying to quarantine the disease, doctors failed to prevent it from expanding, which led to it infecting hundreds of soldiers, who then passed it on to their doctors, families and the enemies at war. The first wave of the flu had a small amount of fatalities, and thus had a lesser effect on people. However, the poor maintenance of the influenza virus allowed it to mutate into a deadlier version. It passed on from person to person, evolving and adapting to become the strain of H1N1 that killed millions. By the time the flu was recognized as dangerous, it had already spread to numerous countries. The second strain of the Spanish Flu killed and debilitated much more than the first strain did, but no attempts were made to stop it. In fact, the head of the U.S. Public Health Service, Surgeon General Rupert Blue, knew that the outbreak of the flu was extensive. But in 1918, he denied a $10,000 pneumonia research project, which was requested because the current leading cause of death was pneumonia which resulted from the
The Influenza outbreak of 1918 spread rapidly and was so detrimental to the economy because of the subpar initial reaction to the virus, the high infectivity and mortality rate, and the inability to fill common civilian jobs after and during the epidemic.
Due to the poor containment and treatment of the virus by the government, the first strain of the virus spread rapidly and evolved into an incredibly fatal strain, allowing the Spanish Flu to become the deadliest pandemic in American history. The flu was able to spread so quickly because many experts thought it was harmless and didn’t take precautions to prevent the transmission. John Barry, in his book The Great Influenza, explains how the virus spread throughout America. When the “disease began jumping from army camp to army camp and occasionally …show more content…
Instead of trying to quarantine the disease, doctors failed to prevent it from expanding, which led to it infecting hundreds of soldiers, who then passed it on to their doctors, families and the enemies at war. The first wave of the flu had a small amount of fatalities, and thus had a lesser effect on people. However, the poor maintenance of the influenza virus allowed it to mutate into a deadlier version. It passed on from person to person, evolving and adapting to become the strain of H1N1 that killed millions. By the time the flu was recognized as dangerous, it had already spread to numerous countries. The second strain of the Spanish Flu killed and debilitated much more than the first strain did, but no attempts were made to stop it. In fact, the head of the U.S. Public Health Service, Surgeon General Rupert Blue, knew that the outbreak of the flu was extensive. But in 1918, he denied a $10,000 pneumonia research project, which was requested because the current leading cause of death was pneumonia which resulted from the