Pandemia of Influenza in 1918

[ordino]

 Was it the called "gripe española" in Siberia. Are there any information about the situation of the pandemia in Siberia?. Thanks in advance for the information. Ordino

[cimbrio]

Spanish flu apparently raged through Europe. The Allies of World War I called it the "Spanish Flu". This was mainly because the pandemic received greater press attention in Spain than in the rest of the world, because Spain was not involved in the war and there was no wartime censorship in Spain. Although the virus certainly did not originate in Spain, the country did have one of the worst early outbreaks of the disease, with some 8 million people infected in May 1918. It was also described as only "the flu" or "la grippe" by public health officials seeking to prevent panic. The social effects were intense due to the fast spread of the pandemic. Global mortality rate from the flu was estimated at 2.5% – 5% of the human population, and 20% of world population suffering from the disease to some extent. It spread across the world killing 25 million during six months; some estimates put the total killed at over twice that number, possibly even 100 million. An estimated 17 million died in India, about 5% of India's population at the time. In Britain 200,000 died; in France more than 400,000. The death rate was especially high for indigenous peoples; entire villages perished in Alaska and southern Africa. In the Fiji Islands, 14% of population died during only two weeks, and in Western Samoa 22%. In Japan, 257,363 deaths were attributed to influenza by July 1919, giving an estimated 0.425% mortality rate, much lower than nearly all other Asian countries for which data are available. CNN.com reported that historian John Barry wrote in his book "The Great Influenza" that Bayer aspirin was just hitting the market in the US at the time of the Spanish flu, but because Bayer was a German company and World War I was happening, many Americans distrusted it and thought that it was a form of germ warfare. It was reported that Barry further related in his book that this theory was even suggested by US government officials.

(Source: Wikipedia)

On a side note, The Duchess of Connaught, née Princess Luise of Prussia, died of Spanish Influenza in 1917. Hope it helps. Even a bit...

[Alixz]

Today, we often and pinpoint the origin of epdemics.  Does anyone know where the Spanish Flu originated? As in the "bird flu" in China.

I know that soldiers returning home to the US from Europe brought it back with them.  Since Spain was neutral and did not have trench war fare, my guess it that  it did not originate there.  I had always believed that it originated in the trenches.  And spread quickly with the soldiers as they moved and retreated.  Also a lot of dead lay where they fell and that is a quick way to spread any kind of disease.

As a side line, anything German was suspect even hamburgers and frankfurters.

[cimbrio]

One theory is that the virus strain originated at Fort Riley, Kansas, by two genetic mechanisms — genetic drift and antigenic shift — in viruses in poultry and swine which the fort bred for local consumption.

But evidence from a recent reconstruction of the virus suggests that it jumped directly from birds to humans, without traveling through swine. This does not challenge the idea that the pandemic started with a Fort Riley cook. Indeed, the cook may have been preparing chickens when he contracted the virus.

In US, about 28% of the population suffered, and 500,000 to 675,000 died.

The strain was unusual in killing many young and healthy victims, unlike common influenzas which killed mostly newborns and the old and infirm. People without symptoms could be struck suddenly and within hours be too feeble to walk; many died the next day. Symptoms included a blue tint to the face and coughing up blood caused by severe obstruction of the lungs. In later stages, the virus caused an uncontrollable hemorrhaging that filled the lungs, and patients drowned in their body fluids.

In fast-progressing cases, mortality was primarily from pneumonia, by virus-induced consolidation. Slower-progressing cases featured secondary bacterial pneumonias, while some suspect neural involvement led to psychiatric disorders in a minority of cases. Some deaths resulted from malnourishment and even animal attacks in overwhelmed communities.

While in most places, less than one-third of the population was infected and a fraction of that died, in a number of towns in several countries the entire population was wiped out. The only sizeable inhabited place with no documented outbreak of the flu in 1918–1919 was the island of Marajó at the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil.

The Spanish Flu vanished within 18 months. The illness left as abruptly as it came.

(Source: Wikipedia)

[Phil_tomaselli]

With reference to influenza in Siberia, I must have read two dozen books and scores of British Foreign Office and War Office files about Siberia but don't recall any reference to Flu.  Typhus seems to have been the big killer, or the disease most feared and talked about.

Phil Tomaselli

[ordino]

Thanks for the interesting information, it´s great. Please Phil Tomaselli about the scores of British Foreign Office and War Office files about Siberia. There were any comment about a rare or unknown disease when the Russian soldiers from the front come back to Siberia?. I rebember, not very well, that Doctor Derevenko visited the wife or a relative of a bolchevik offcial because she was ill. May be the Flu was in Siberia but they did not know it. Thanks. ordino

[Nadezhda_Edvardova]

I have two great books on the 1918 Flu, Influenza 1918: The Worst Epidemic in American History by Lynette Iezzoni (New York: TV Books, 1999) and The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry (New York: Viking, 2004).

Iezzoni implies that the pandemic played into Lenin's hands by forcing Germany into surrendering at a crucial point: the Imperial Family had been executed (no turning back) but while the Revolution was still young (and Lenin's government fragile and needing a victorious end to the war.)  Moreover, the flu was hitting the United States so hard that President Wilson was getting extreme pressure from his diplomatic corps to accept a peace settlement that bowed to the Bolshevik government's illegal takeover of Hungary.  Wilson deeply compromised his ideals in the peace settlement, especially with regard to self-determination of nations.  Wilson actually caught the Spanish flu himself while in Paris for the negotiations, and that just further compelled him to compromise his beliefs.  All this timed just right to enhance the Bolsheviks' chances for survival.  

To all that we can add that the barely-born USSR needed peace: according to Barry, approximately 7% of Russia's population died of flu.  Add to that death & disease associated with war, civil war, revolution, counterrevolution, displacement, poverty, famine  etc.  God have mercy.

Pax,

N.

[Tania]

Thank you infinitly for this information Nadezhda Edvardovna. I had forgot the basic details, but you have helped me immensely. Your quite right, it must have been overwhelming in total for Russia at that time. I think with so much going on, most people forgot the dynamics of what part the flu played in the historical narrative of the revolution, etc.. Thanks again Nadezhda !

Tatiana+

[ordino]

Thanks for the interesting information, it´s great. Please Phil Tomaselli about the scores of British Foreign Office and War Office files about Siberia. There were any comment about a rare or unknown disease when the Russian soldiers from the front come back to Siberia?. I rebember, not very well, that Doctor Derevenko visited the wife or a relative of a bolchevik offcial because she was ill. May be the Flu was in Siberia but they did not know it. Thanks. ordino

Any idea about this question??
Thanks. Ordino