14 AMERICAN HISTORY
BETTMANN
/GETTYIMA
G
ESInfluenza is usually a mild seasonal disease,
but in 1918-19 a strain of influenza that may
have originated in the United States killed tens
of millions. In Influenza: The Hundred Year
Hunt to Cure the Deadliest Disease in History
(Touchstone, 2018), Jeremy Brown, MD, an
emergency physician and director of the Office
of Emergency Care Research at the National
Institutes of Health, explains that pandemic
and discusses what might prevent a reprise.
Why was 1918-19 so bad? The virus was so dif-
ferent from previous influenza viruses, vic-
tims’ immune systems couldn’t recognize it
and fight it. Additionally, we believe that some
patients’ immune systems overreacted to the
virus and attacked the body’s own healthy
lung cells. This caused severe lung damage
and made victims vulnerable to a secondary
bacterial pneumonia which was likely the real
killer. In 1918, there were no antibiotics to treat
these bacterial infections. The virus multiplied
rapidly in the crowded living conditions of the
time, and unprecedented numbers of young
soldiers were living in cramped barracks and
traveling in ships’ holds on their way to
Europe. Within months, the pandemic had
gone all over the world.
Where did the pandemic originate? The 1918
virus originated in birds, then jumped into an
intermediary host, probably pigs, and then to
humans. Haskell County in western Kansas
may have been ground zero around January
- Army recruits from there mustered at
Camp Funston near Manhattan, Kansas, 300
miles east. Sickness broke out at Funston in
March 1918. Then the disease spread from
camp to camp before breaking out into the
civilian population in the United States and
Europe. Pandemic influenza had two waves.
the first was less severe and ended around
June 1918. But the virus returned in October
and hit every continent except Antarctica.
Some experts, trying to explain the rapidity of
the disease’s spread, believe a less virulent bird
Bad Bug
Influenza viruses are
shapeshifters that
confound scientists
no less than they do
the body’s defenses,
making them tough
opponents in the
fight to maintain the
public health, Brown
explains.
REALLY TRULY
GOING VIRAL BY NANCY TAPPAN
Sticking It
Dr. William Lukash
vaccinates President
Ford against swine
flu, October 14, 1976.