H1N1 Swine Flu: 1918 Vs. Today

Over a million Ukrainians (population about 40 million) contracted a flu in the first two weeks of November 2009. It is believed to be H1N1, but some people are displaying 1918-like symptoms, such as bleeding from the nose, eyes, and ears, and lungs flooded with blood. Face masks have sold out, as people try to protect themselves.

The mainstream media have been fairly quiet about this, although there have been some articles in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. I have written more about the Ukrainian H1N1 influenza outbreak if you are interested in reading more.

In April of 1918, a mild influenza outbreak occurred in America and Europe. While nobody knows for sure where the outbreak first occurred, some historians believe that it may have originated in Haskell County, Kansas. A flu outbreak occurred there. An army soldier on leave arrived in Fort Riley, Kansas, shortly afterward, and a flu outbreak occurred there. The virus spread to other areas of Europe when soldiers carried it across the ocean as they went to the WWI front.

Being in the middle of World War I, the press in many countries was quite restrained. The flu became known as the Spanish Flu, because the Spanish press was not as restrained as it was in other parts of the country.

The disease was so mild, that scientists at the time weren't completely sure whether the illness crossing the country was influenza or not. Almost everybody recovered completely, and there were few complications.

In August, many doctors believed that the flu epidemic was nearly over.

When a virus passes from one individual to the next, or between animals, viral passage occurs. Every time a virus passes from one person to the next, there is a chance that the virus will change in form a little. Viral passage sometimes makes the virus weaker. In 1918, viral passage made the H1N1 virus stronger. What some scientists thought was over was just beginning...

Over the summer, there were a couple of strong outbreaks of influenza, but they quickly died out. Then August came. At a coaling station in Sierra Leone, a virulent strain of the disease started spreading to the ships that got coal there. At the time, some people thought that it was not the flu that was spreading, but the black death.

In September of 1918, influenza broke out at Camp Devens, Massachusetts. Some scientists urged that troops were quarantined and were not allowed to be transferred to other military camps, but the needs of the war took priority over the need of containing the disease. Nobody realize how deadly it would get.

The disease started spreading through the military bases. It started to spread within the civilian population when a liberty bond rally in Philadelphia was held. Thousands of civilians in close proximity to one another spread influenza like wildfire. It was too late to contain it.

Photo of Camp Devens by NASA.

The flu spread throughout the country. Troops brought it to Europe. It could not be contained. It spread from the cities, to the smaller towns, to the villages, and to the houses. It was everywhere. When the flu hit, there were often not enough hospital beds for the sick. In the military camps, barracks were turned into makeshift hospitals... or morgues.

There were not enough doctors. There were not enough nurses. There were not enough caskets. There were not enough undertakers to bury the dead. In some places, bodies piled up.

The media was not helping anything. Trying to keep morale up because of the war, newspapers tried to put the virus in a positive light, or sweep it under the rug. People knew they were being lied to, and they were scared. They were so scared, they would not take food to some of their sick relatives. Some people that would have otherwise lived starved to death. They were so scared that they would not volunteer to help the sick.

Eventually, the flu killed millions of people. Some of the people that survived influenza suffered brain damage, and had trouble making decisions afterwards. Others found that their health was forever scarred, and they were never the same.

Influenza might have even contributed to World War II. During the peace talks after World War I, Woodrow Wilson had some demands that he was not willing to compromise on. Then he caught the flu. After emerging from the flu, he made the compromises that he stubbornly refused to make before getting sick. His mind might have been altered from the flu. Could the compromises that he made after he got the flu have resulted in World War II? We can never know for sure.

H1N1 has recently been in the news. This H1N1 virus is believed to have come from pigs in Mexico. Mexico had several deaths from the flu before it spread. It then spread to the United States. It has now been confirmed in those two countries, plus Canada, South America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Russia, and India. Outside of Mexico, fatalities were generally low through the summer.

As the year progresses, H1N1 seems to be spreading. Take a look at the Twitter search below. People are talking about it like crazy. I was following Twitter and message board conversations last night, and the disease seems to be getting worse. A few healthy people (without underlying conditions) have now died from the illness, which didn't happen earlier this year. Schools are emptying of students because so many are sick.

My husband saw an attack of H1N1 at the summer camp that he worked at this year, and he told me that it was common for more than 75% of the kids in a bunk to have it. They had to set up a special infirmary area. He tried to catch it while it was still fairly innocuous, and couldn't catch it, which makes us believe that we had it earlier this year.

H1N1 was trending on Twitter this morning, as there are several new developments that you may be interested in:

1. Many health care workers, including the developers of the H1N1 vaccine, intend to refuse vaccination. Many are wary of the side effects, and are worried that it won't work as well as some people hoped.
   
2. Massachusettes just passed a bill, numbered 2028, that has a number of provisions, including forced vaccination, forced transport (kidnapping), forced quarantine, forced evacuation, and forced evacuation in the event of an outbreak. Natural News.com has a great explanation of the bill, but don't take anybody else's word for it, read the bill for yourself.
   
3. Brazil leads the swine flu deaths currently, with 557. The US is not far behind, with 522 deaths.

So far, it looks like the H1N1 Swine Flu hasn't mutated as it makes its way through the Southern Hemisphere, where the winter flu season is currently underway. The number of cases there appear to be dropping.

Like the H1N1 Spanish Flu that wreaked havoc on the earth in 1918, this version of the H1N1 swine flu appears to affect younger people, under the age of 49, more heavily than it does the elderly. In 1918, the flu took advantage of good immune systems, almost causing the body to fight itself.

Despite the lack of mutations, some doctors, including Dr. Felipe Gutierrez, the director of the microbiological management team at Banner Health in Arizona, fears that there may be a "perfect storm" this season, making it a particularly bad season. He also states that H1N1 in 1918 began in the same way as it did this year. "It started just the way our first wave did. Really it was just like a little blip on the radar screen."

Sources:

Mitchell Vantrease. Banner Preps for Next Wave of H1N1 Flu, August 19, 2009

Elizabeth Weise. H1N1 flu virus hasn't mutated, CDC officials report. USA Today, August 21, 2009.

A vaccine has been developed for H1N1 Vaccine (which is good), but according to the Department of Health and Human Services, they may fall short of the 120 million doses that they had hoped to have by September. They expect to have around 45 million doses by that time, with 85 million ready by late October.

The good news is that there is a vaccine. In 1918, scientists didn't even know that they were dealing with a virus, let alone figure out a vaccine for it. Flu virus does have the ability to mutate, but more than likely, the vaccine would protect most people from a slightly mutated version, and they could come out with an updated vaccine if necessary.

This page grew from listening to The Great Influenza on audiobook. as I started listening to the book, I was struck that the 1918 virus was very mild in the spring, but hit hard in the fall. The 2009 flu epidemic seems to be pretty mild... in the spring. Could we be in for a rough fall? One could hope not.

We know a lot more about medicine today than we did in 1918, but does that mean a whole lot? Our hospitals are more efficient, and there are not as many beds per capita. If there were problems requiring massive amounts of people to be hospitalized, our medical systems would probably be overloaded. Just in time production means we don't have stockpiles of many medical products. Our grocery stores don't keep extra supplies around either. If many people were to become sick, our economy could be affected as well.

As I listened to the book, I learned that when one influenza virus meets up with another influenza virus, its genes could combine, creating a brand new virus. What would happen if one person caught the avian influenza and the swine flu at the same time? These genes could recombine to create a completely unknown flu that nobody has immunity to. This could be devastating.

In 1918, the advice that doctors gave was "don't get scared" and "chew your food." I wrote an article with more information on preventing the flu:

The flu has recently made the news, as the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, has spread from Mexico to the United States. Doctors recommend vaccination as a way to prevent getting the flu, but the vaccine cannot protect you against every strain and mutation of the virus. Good health habits can help you stay healthy. The Centers For Disease Control recommends that you take the following steps to prevent the spread of germs.

Wash Your Hands

Washing your hands frequently will protect you from the spread of germs. This sounds simple, but most people don't wash their hands properly. Although most people say that they wash their hands after using the restroom, many do not. In a study conducted by the American Society of Microbiologists, 10% of women do not wash their hands after using a public restroom, and 25% of men did not wash their hands after using a public restroom. You should also wash your hands after changing a baby's diaper, handling money, handling food, sneezing, or touching a pet.

Read more of the article -->

Late in 2010, the H1N1 pandemic that began in 2009 was declared over. Fortunately, we had no recurrence of the terrors of 1918. This doesn't meant that it couldn't happen in the future. The original H1N1 virus still exists, and if the mutation that occurred primarily in the Ukraine could happen once, it could happen again.

The H1N1 virus that erupted in 2009 originally came from pigs. Although nobody knows for sure how pigs originally got the H1N1 virus to begin with, one of the hypotheses listed in The Great Influenza is that pigs originally got the H1N1 virus from humans during the 1918 flu outbreak.