The Spanish Influenza Epidemic

The years of 1918 were lively. Theatres became popular hangouts, the economy was booming from war productions, factory jobs grew exponentially, and health and sanitation education started playing important roles in people’s lives for the first time in recent history. No one could have predicted what would follow, nor how serious it became or how the society of the decade would send the nation downhill. The Spanish Influenza broke out in the United States, causing the worst epidemic the country has ever known, even to this day. This disease was known to be so deadly for having “...killed more people in 24 hours than AIDS had in 24 years, and more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century” (Billings). This illness annihilated 50 million …show more content…
Surprisingly, it was discovered that the flu strain was a virus. Before this, bacteria was the only type of sickness people were aware of. Fundamentally, that was the biggest hinderance to the original treatment methods; now knowing about a different cause of illness, the government could focus on treatment rather than sanitation. Doctors and nurses noted that it was not the flu itself that was killing thousands of people, but the pneumonia that it caused (Orr). In response, the U.S. began using nurses as trained practitioners rather than simple aids to doctors by teaching them how to help the sick. Moreover, one of the most advanced discoveries helped the government finally find a way to end the spread of the Spanish Influenza: the NS1 protein had been tracked down as the targeted area (Orr). The strength of the NS1 protein ultimately determined who would fall ill versus who would fall terminally ill. This epiphany was so significant because it divulged that the younger population had weak proteins and subsequently little immunity to the flu strain because they had not experienced any prior flu strains like their elders had. So, the U.S. was able to introduce vaccines of the older viruses to teach the young people's’ bodies how to combat a flu …show more content…
Through attempting to help the people, the country learned how to form a wellness program and consequently how to prevent a similar disaster from slaughtering its people in the same way ever again. In doing so, the United States created a medical system that would prosper for years to come, from being able to quickly and easily treat patients who have a common communicable disease like strep throat in no time, to almost completely eliminating the life-threatening disease of