The Influenza Pandemic

By Bobbi Spiker-Conley

COVID-19 Timeline

On December 31, 2019, Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, China, reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province. A novel coronavirus was eventually identified. 

On January 5, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the first Disease Outbreak News on the new virus. 

On January 10, 2010, WHO issued a comprehensive package of technical guidance with advice to all countries on how to detect, test and manage potential cases, based on what was known about the virus at the time. 

The first case of this new coronavirus in the United States was reported on January 21, 2010.

On February 11, 2020, the virus was named ”severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)” and the disease it causes was named “coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)” 

On March 11, 2020, WHO made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that during a 3-week period in late February to early March, the number of U.S. COVID-19 cases increased more than 1000-fold. National, state and local pubic health responses intensified and adapted in an attempt to reduce further spread of the virus and to control the impact on health care capacity.

“Spanish Influenza” (H1N1) Timeline

Early on the morning of March 11, 1918, an Army private at Fort Riley, Kansas reported to the camp hospital with flu-like symptoms. By the end of the day, over 100 soldiers reported similar symptoms.

In May 1918, WWI-neutral Spain was the first to officially report on the virus, hence the misnomer of ”Spanish influenza”

According to the WV Encyclopedia, on October 5, 1918, the WV superintendent of health sent a letter to county health officers ordering that all cases of the disease be reported, all affected persons be quarantined, and all public places be closed. Many people wore face masks when they went out in public and while caring for the sick.

Between October 15 and November 15, 1918, more than 71,000 West Virginians contracted influenza, and 2,818 were reported to have died — a number that accounted for one-fourth of all deaths reported in the Mountain State in 1918.

A second peak was seen between February and March of 1919.

The exact number of the state (and the world’s) influenza victims is unknown. Physicians and nurses were overwhelmed. Accurate records were not kept. Many health care providers were not able to file reports, and others inaccurately estimated the numbers of cases in their area. In addition, it is believed that many cases of illness or death were misdiagnosed or misattributed.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has stated, “The majority of deaths during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 were not caused by the influenza virus acting alone…Instead, most victims succumbed to bacterial pneumonia following influenza virus infection.”

The 1918 influenza virus has been called the “mother of all pandemics” in that almost all cases of influenza A worldwide have been caused by the descendants of the 1918 virus. None of these viral descendants, however, approaches the pathogenicity of the 1918 parent virus. In the January 2006 article by Taubenberger and Morens, it is stated, “Despite an explosion of data on the 1918 virus during the past decade, we are not much closer to understanding pandemic emergence (now) than we were in understanding the risk of H1N1 ‘swine flu’ emergence in 1976…Understanding influenza pandemics in general requires understanding the 1918 pandemic in all its historical, epidemiologic, and biologic aspects.”

Our Ancestors and the “Spanish Flu”

Two pandemics —100 years apart — have been constantly in the news. While most of us are keeping up with the current headlines, John Jackson has been busy chronicling the headlines from the past.

John is a Ritchie County, WV native who has spent years researching and writing about his family’s history. He supplements the info gained from traditional histories with articles printed in old newspapers — an endeavor that has resulted in two published books (and counting.) As he scrolls through old microfilm and flips through yellowed papers during his research, he comes across a lot of newsy tidbits that he generously shares in several genealogy-related Facebook groups. As he has said, these snippets reveal the events that shaped the lives of our Ritchie County ancestors and, by extension, our own. 

Corresponding to the pandemic of 1918-1919, the following are a few excerpts of John’s transcriptions that appeared in the Ritchie County, West Virginia History and Genealogy Group on Facebook as part of his series, “100 Years Ago This Week.” 

Note — this list is restricted to transcriptions that specifically mention the “Spanish Flu,” aka “La Grippe.” Many more suffered or died from pneumonia — the secondary bacterial infection that is said to have contributed to most flu-related deaths. Since we cannot distinguish between what was or was not contributory, we have not included those transcriptions in this list.

Announcements

• UPDATE Aug 2020 – In response to this article, cousin Rochelle D. Spiker submitted a story for our Library titled Elderberries - an old Spiker remedy for preventing the flu (and maybe COVID-19)