A century ago, a killer flu claimed 50 million lives
The 1918 pandemic revealed the power of influenza viruses
It’s been 100 years since a global pandemic of flu claimed the lives of more than 50 million people, including at least 4,879 in Washington state, and 675,000 across the United States. In 2018, we’ll take a look at the 1918 flu and its impact on Washington State and the world.
This pandemic, later coined “the Spanish Flu,” was first identified in early spring 1918 among military personnel in Kansas.
The virus likely slipped into Washington State on September 17, 1918, when feverish naval recruits from Philadelphia docked near Bremerton. Within a week, at least 173 people were stricken at Camp Lewis south of Tacoma. Two days later, the disease appeared in Seattle. Because the illness had already been ravaging the East Coast, health officials in Washington tried quickly and deliberately to stop the spread.
On September 29, Washington’s State Board of Health warned Washington residents to expect six to eight weeks of successive waves of flu, with widespread closures of public places likely. Residents were asked to help prevent the spread of the disease.
Within a year, the virus spread throughout the world, ultimately infecting one-third of the world’s population — about 500 million people — and killing five percent of the people on Earth.
“Blood was everywhere, on linens, clothes, pouring out of some men’s nostrils and even ears, while others coughed it up. Many of the soldiers, boys in their teens, men in their twenties — healthy, normally ruddy men — were turning blue.” The Great Influenza [The Story of the Deadliest Plague in History]
How did it happen?
In 1918, scientific understanding of viruses and how they spread was in its infancy. We now know the flu is caused by a virus and is transmitted by coughing and sneezing. It’s highly contagious and spreads most easily when people gather or live together. Flu viruses constantly change, and all seasonal flu originates from pandemic flu strains.
A flu pandemic is a global outbreak of a new flu virus that is very different from current and recently circulating seasonal flu viruses. Influenza viruses constantly change, and on very rare occasions, flu viruses that normally only infect animals change in a way that allows them to easily infect people and spread.
Seasonal flu strains typically spread for decades in the human population, making it possible to prepare vaccines in advance of each year’s flu season. These periods are often capped by outbreaks of new flu strains, like the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, which killed about 284,000 people worldwide. H1N1 has now become a predominate strain of seasonal flu, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Why was it so bad?
Unlike a typical seasonal flu virus, this virus hit hard among the young. The virus spread among military units, universities, and schools. People born after 1889 had never been exposed to the type of flu that struck in 1918, leaving them more vulnerable. People born before 1889, meanwhile, had been exposed to flu strains like that of the 1918 flu, offering some immunity against infection and severe consequences. It was so severe because it was so different than the flu varieties that had circulated in the previous few decades.
Spain was one of the first countries to track and report the illness, so international media coined the frightening outbreak “Spanish Flu.”
Can it happen again?
The short answer is yes. Pandemics will continue to happen. Since the 1918 pandemic, there have been three flu pandemics — 1957, 1968, and 2009 — though none so deadly.
What’s changed since 1918?
Many incredible discoveries have transformed public health since the early 20th century.
In 1918, there was no flu vaccine, no antiviral medicine to reduce the severity of the illness, and no antibiotics to treat bacterial infections like pneumonia that can co-occur with flu infection.
Taking a look back
As we mark this 100-year anniversary, we’ll feature more strides in medicine and public health. We’ll also highlight ways that flu viruses continue to elude scientists as they search for new vaccines and other strategies to protect people from the flu.
We invite you to follow along as we explore the 1918 flu and discoveries and advances. Follow DOH Facebook posts, our Twitter feed, and this blog.
