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A hundred years ago, something like martial law was in force in Rapid City: public buildings, many private businesses were closed and public gatherings banned.
A global flu pandemic, known as the Spanish flu, had invaded the city. Despite extraordinary attempts to control the spread of flu from one person to another, hundreds of Rapid Citians became ill and dozens of them died, most of the time in just a few weeks, in October 1918.
An unidentified writer from the Rapid City Journal – perhaps the editor and owner, Joseph B. Gossage – wrote on October 17, 1918 that he had lived through all the public health crises in Rapid City up to this date, including "mountain fever". typhoid fever, smallpox, scarlet fever and diphtheria. But compared to the Spanish flu, "the first were infantile and easy to handle".
"Hold a hearse at any time of the day or night, see people in mourning stroll the streets, half-distracted, and know that the next to leave will be the one you've seen healthy there Just a few days ago, these things make the ordinary troubles of life seem like nothing, "the article said.
The rest of the article quotes seven people from Rapid City or surrounding areas who died from influenza in the previous two days, including several adults aged 20 to 30 – the common age deadly victims of the Spanish flu – and two children from the indigenous community. American boarding school.
A subsequent report from the State Vital Statistics Division recorded 60 influenza deaths in Pennington County in 1918, out of 1,847 deaths from influenza in the country as a whole this year. the. The flu caused 28% of all deaths in South Dakota in 1918, when it was the state's main killer, according to the State Historical Society.
Nationally, the pandemic has killed 675,000 people and 50 million globally. We do not think that the virus originated in Spain, but it appeared in this way at the time, only because the lack of censorship in the country during the First World War had allowed earlier media coverage and more complete pandemic. Nevertheless, the name "Spanish flu" has remained.
There are several theories about the true global origin of the virus. In this country, researchers have identified Albert Gitchell, a soldier with links to South Dakota and the Black Hills, as the first recorded case of Spanish flu in the United States.
A researcher in Canada reported that Gitchell was born in Chicago and lived in communities in South Dakota, including Ree Heights and Sturgis. He was a cook in Fort Riley, Kansas when, on March 4, 1918, he reported flu symptoms.
Heeth Grantham, who recently produced a television documentary on the influenza pandemic for Smithsonian, said whether or not Gitchell was the first victim of the Spanish strain in the country, his case was probably the first in the United States to be well documented. , thanks to the presence of Gitchell in a military installation where detailed records were kept.
"Gitchell was in a great place to be nicknamed" Patient Zero, "Grantham said.
For most of the year 1918, readers of the Rapid City newspaper may have seen themselves isolated from the pandemic while it was spreading around the world. Some Journal articles have minimized the threat of influenza, even in the last few days before the city's aggression.
On October 1, 2 and 3, 1918, the title of the first page of the newspaper said: "Influenza does not get worse, but it does not matter", "Influenza in the city is not yet an issue. danger mark "and" More flu cases but no dangerous ones. "
Then, suddenly, on October 6, 1918, the tone changed. "The epidemic has reached the stage of the flu," read in front of the page in the newspaper of this day.
During the next weeks, the city was besieged. Churches, theaters, schools, public libraries, billiard halls, pop and other shops and closed public buildings. Deliveries from the grocery store were suspended. Hospital admission was limited to the most urgent cases because many nurses were ill.
A central kitchen was opened in high school, where food was prepared for distribution to homes where all family members were ill. On the order of the mayor, all funerals were ordered in the open air, in order to "eliminate the gathering of some people in a small space insufficiently ventilated".
On October 24, 1918, Mayor W. E. Robinson "established an effective quarantine" that must be enforced by the police, the Journal reported. Residences affected by flu should be placarded and people with flu should remain at home until a doctor's permit is issued. This permit could only be obtained by spending five days without fever.
It was even forbidden for healthy people to roam the streets in groups of more than two or three people, and anyone who took it was supposed to hold a doctor's license if he hoped to avoid trouble. At the train depot, the police only allowed one client to come to the counter at any time.
In the last days of October, at least two people were cited for breaking a city ordinance prohibiting spitting on sidewalks. The order was apparently adopted in a previous national effort to eradicate TB, but it was only enforced until the city's influenza epidemic in 1918, when the order was made. renewed focus as an additional means to combat the spread of influenza. The prescription was apparently forgotten after the outbreak, and a search in the Rapid City code reveals that the anti-sputum prescription is still in effect today.
Statistics published in the newspaper during the influenza epidemic of the city were not complete, but they gave indications on the alarming magnitude of the test.
On October 3, 1918, the Journal reported that except for 18 of the 130 men who were attending an army training camp on the campus of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. , had the flu. On October 6, the Journal published an estimate that 250 residents of Rapid City were sick. By October 10, this number had increased to 500 and was described as a conservative estimate. According to the census figures of 1910 and 1920, the total population of the city at the time was probably about 5,000 people.
Newspaper coverage of the impact of influenza at the Indian Residential School was less solid, but one headline proclaimed that conditions were the worst in the community.
The virus has moved quickly, sometimes killing people a few days after their first symptoms. The virus also quickly crossed the city. in early November 1918, the city's community kitchen stopped distributing meals, businesses and schools reopened and life resumed its normal course.
The public health crisis occurred as the First World War came to an end, but lists of the latest victims of the South Dakota war are still in the Journal alongside the latest reports on the victims of influenza. A local project call was suspended during the city's flu epidemic for lack of healthy men.
In the midst of the epidemic, a writer of the Journal reflected on its historical character.
"It will take some time before the people of Rapid City can forget about the recent experience, if they ever did, but human nature is naturally dynamic and always ready to make the most of things. The reconstruction period will be fast and secure, "said the president. article said. "Nobody will forget, however, the good deeds accomplished, the spirit of sacrifice of hundreds of people of our people who helped to take care of hundreds of others from their neighbors, friends or strangers. "
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