Dirty and scared, three young children came to the beach. They had a very high fever and, behind their tiny bodies, aboard the little ship from which they had landed, rested the bodies of two dead men.
The group was trying to flee the disease epidemic ] that had devastated their isolated little village upstream, to the point where the Naknek River was stranded in Bristol Bay, in Alaska.
Their unexpected arrival at the "Diamond O" canning factory of the Alaska Packer Association in Naknek meant that the "Spanish flu" that had ravaged much of of the world had also reached this remote corner of the country covered with ice.
The inhospitable weather During the months of September and May, some people were prevented from approaching these payments, which had hitherto been successful to escape the influenza that had affected the population of a large part of the world during the year 1918.
The pandemic had already killed 50 to 100 million people, more than the total number of deaths caused by the terror of the World War . ] The arrival of the boat at the cannery on June 4, 1919 indicated that the disease had finally been pbaded on to remote Inuit communities, the inhabitants of the coast of Alaska.
The next day, the cannery superintendent sent a team to the children's village to see if she could help.
What they discovered was horrible .
Reports from the men of the expedition explained that the city of Savonoski was in a "deplorable state" and "miserable". Almost all of the adult population from a small group of 10 houses was dead.
The inhospitable conditions in Alaska failed to rid much of its population of the pandemic.
They were still alive, they were seriously ill and reported that their loved ones lost consciousness while walking.
This image has been repeated in villages throughout Alaska.
In some places, stories of packs of stray dogs have emerged. who fed on the bodies of the dead . Up to 90% of its population has died in some communities.
"Escape Communities"
However, a few miles from some of the most affected areas of Bristol Bay, a community in a small village called Egegak completely escaped the disease .
"It is strange that Egegak was the only town in Bristol Bay to have no problems with the disease," according to the official report on the epidemic. JF Heinbockel, Superintendent of the Alaska Packing Association of Naknek.
Other medical reports indicated that some inhabitants of Egegak presented only mild symptoms of the disease. It seems that they were lucky.
As the world tried to recover from the global pandemic, stories telling the story of similar places that had escaped the virus began to appear.
There were not many: a handful of isolated islands, rural towns, asylums, walls and schools were some of the places that had not been touched.
But the teaching on the survival of these calls "communities of flight" can prove very useful today ] because the health authorities fear the next pandemic of this disease.
The lessons they contain are considered so important as the United States Department of Defense Threat Reduction Agency. has investigated some places in the country not affected by the Spanish flu in the hope of obtaining some clues about how to protect military personnel in the future.
Many adults died, leaving their children orphaned to fend for themselves
In total, the report's authors focused on seven communities that discovered that they had escaped the virus, even though they "have other communities not identified," says Howard Markel, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan and one of the authors of l & # 39; study.
" No one came or anyone. With schools closed and people not meeting, we found the term" diversion of protection "to refer to a group of people good health, it is protected against the risk of infection by strangers. "
The fact that these communities are in distant places also contributed to the protection of certain sites in 1918
The US Naval Base. UU on the island of Yerba Buena, in San Francisco Bay, it was only accessible by boat. Its 6,000 inhabitants were confined on the island and no visitor was allowed to go ashore.
Villages on the Naknek River in Alaska the sudden arrival of influenza
"As soon as you open the doors, the virus enters the body of people who have access to it ", explains Markel. "The so-called" diversion of protection "" is good as long as you do it. "
"However, the idea that today it is possible to close a modern city or even a university is very likely very costly and annoying."
Immunity possible [19659017] The reasons why these attempts to delay the arrival of the disease have reduced mortality rates in these places are unclear. But research has suggested that over time, as the virus progresses among populations, it has accumulated mutations that naturally reduced its ability to become ill .
Even some of the most isolated colonies in Alaska have been contaminated, often by mail.
But even in places with potential immunity, its inhabitants have seen some of their inhabitants become ill, which could mean that the virus has also reached these remote sites, but after having touched other parts of the world and reduced the incidence of its incidence.
The factor
Blood tests conducted in Alaska, however, confirmed that some isolated populations had never been exposed.
Residents of Yupik settlements in Gambell and Savoonga, San Lorenzo Island, Bering Strait and even more remote island of San Pablo, further to the south, no were found traces of antibodies against the 1918 virus when they took samples in the 1950s.
Although it seems that these places are protected primarily by its geography, other communities have taken steps to isolate themselves
Residents of Barrow and Wainwright, located in northern Alaska, have placed armed guards around their villages and were banned from moving. Between the different colonies.
When scientists tested people living in a series of isolated colonies in northern Alaska, they discovered that they were also free of antibodies, suggesting that They have never been exposed.
Researchers have looked in the past for clues about the consequences of the Spanish flu for preventing possible pandemics
It seems that many of these villages were warned in advance of the virus ] that threatened when it was spreading in Alaska.
"Some places have been warned," says Nicole Braem, a cultural anthropologist at the Bering Land Bridge National Wildlife Area, part of the US National Parks Service.
"Many colonies in Alaska were not affected, mainly because of the quarantines established along the travel routes or their remoteness.The communities at that time were very self-reliant in food and clothing. did not depend so much on food and goods imported from other parts of the United States [en comparación con los de hoy]. "
In the modern world, closing colonies of this kind would be much more difficult . Few places no longer depend on goods imported from another part of the world
The Australian State of Hobart has instituted a strict quarantine and makes very few deaths .
Transportation networks also mean that many places are no longer really remote
"In 1918, they had no idea of the virus or the cause of the pandemic," said Howard Markel. 19659065] "Today, we know better how to cope: we have antivirals, hospitals with intensive care units, respirators and many others. more control, monitoring and surveillance systems. But we travel farther and faster than ever, so that the spread could be much faster than we could bear it.
In 1918, some communities also escaped the virus.
The 737 residents of Fletcher City, Vermont, USA, challenged the council to avoid contact with the community. the outside world, organize a dance and attend a county fair in a nearby city. 19659002] The city even organized a wedding for a soldier in a Mbadachusetts military camp, where 28% of his The population was affected by the disease and had 757 deaths in the same month of marriage.
Of the 120 guests who attended the link, it was as if the inhabitants of Fletcher had dodged a bullet.
And this Good Fortune is perhaps the greatest lesson that the 1918 escape communities have to offer to today's health workforce.Many communities have put in place rigorous protection and quarantine were also victims of
"Even though they knew about the flu and did everything in their power to prevent it, it did," says Katherine Ringsmuth, a historian. "The disease hit so fast that most people have not had the opportunity to respond."
A fall in salmon stocks could have finally helped the village of Egegak. "It was a terrible year for salmon, which produced so much canned for the war in Europe that the number of fish dropped," Ringsmuth said.
"Under these circumstances, he may simply" No one had any reason to visit the area, "theorizes the academician.
Survival, it seems, can sometimes be reduced to blind luck
This article was originally published in English for BBC Future and you can read it here
