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The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that an influenza pandemic is very possible. Sam Berman of Veuer has complete history.
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Influenza patients in a makeshift hospital near Fort Riley, Kansas in 1918. Kansas was the first to have been infected with the flu; the second, a few months later, went to Tennessee.(Photo: Associated Press)
In the fall of 1918, Knoxville fought for four weeks against the Spanish flu. The contagious disease killed about 132 people and closed schools, churches, theaters and billiard halls for nearly a month.
Doctors first described the disease as "old-fashioned reproach", but this fast, often deadly flu strain was unfamiliar. While it often started with a common cold with headache and joint pain, patients developed fever, hallucinations, and bleeding from the nose, stomach, intestines, and sometimes ears. . They spit blood when their skin turned blue, then black.
People who have survived could develop a persistent "painful cough" that could turn into sometimes deadly pneumonia. During the autopsies, the doctors discovered that people had died with lungs filled with fluid.
Another difference was who became ill. Rather than attacking babies, the elderly and the very weak – as most influenza strains do – it strikes young, previously healthy people in their youth. Most patients were between 21 and 40 years old. In the United States, over 90% of victims were under 65 years of age. In total, the outbreak has reduced the average life expectancy of the United States by 12 years.
The "Spanish flu" was a misnomer, as the flu has taken its toll in many countries. But since the outbreak of influenza during the First World War, they were among the "bad news" of many newspapers in countries – including the United States – repressed. Spain was a neutral party in the First World War, having no strategic need to hide its vulnerabilities. Most of the information on influenza came from transmission services in Spain and therefore associated the country's name with the flu.
In a way, it is the war that brought the pandemic to eastern Tennessee. Soldiers, many of whom arrived here on trains from other parts of the country, trained at the University of Tennessee and at Chilhowee Park. The soldiers who became ill probably spread the disease in their barracks and in the city.
The flu comes to town
"Many soldiers" were so sick, reported the Knoxville Sentinel on October 5, that makeshift hospitals were set up in Chilhowee and in the Reese Hall of UT. Red Cross nurses were called to deal with the unreported number of quarantined soldiers. The army also inoculated his soldiers with a "serum" which, he hoped, would prevent them from getting sick.
Initially, the authorities did not seem too worried. About 350 civilians in a town of about 75,000 people were sick in early October and did not seem very sick.
Dr. WR Cochrane, secretary of the Knoxville Health Council, told reporters that the disease would "probably not worsen if the proper precautions were taken". The doctors warned everyone to stay away from the crowd, to take in enough fresh air and to ventilate the spaces.
But more people have fallen ill. On October 9, three people died. That day, 197 soldiers and 604 civilians were sick. Soon, Knoxville General, the only permanent hospital in the city, would be overwhelmed – not only by patients, but also by the shortage of doctors and nurses, many of whom themselves became ill.
The patients also cluttered the Riverside Hospital, which has 40 beds, operating in an old house and a small black hospital, located at Knoxville College. The inadequacy of hospitals to accommodate seized patients accelerated the construction of the Fort Sanders Hospital in 1920.
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Closing Knoxville
On October 9, 1918, at midnight, the city's health council ordered the closure of schools, churches, theaters, and billiard halls. They would remain closed for weeks and would not reopen until November 3rd and 4th.
The University of Tennessee and the Knoxville Business College have canceled courses. UT President Brown Ayres instructed off-campus students not to visit friends in dormitories, but to "spend so much time outdoors." If they became ill, students living in guesthouses or renting rooms were asked to call Ayres if they needed help. doctor.
The five-day Eastern Tennessee Division Fair at Chilhowee Park is over after three days. The only public meetings allowed were fund raisers for Liberty loan war bonds or Red Cross meetings.
By mid-October 1918, the flu had severely affected Knoxville. The employees were too sick to work in local factories; Coal production in Tennessee and Kentucky dropped because many miners were sick.
The railways at Knoxville were having trouble recruiting work crews for the L & N and Southern railways. Red Cross employees in the Southern Railway canteen wore "gauze masks" to greet soldiers who were leaving trains for the training camp.
Trams kept the windows open and disinfected each car at night. Newspapers provided advice on disease prevention, as well as advertisements touting the benefits of Vicks VapoRub and other over-the-counter medications.
Dr. EL The bishop of the state health board has condemned the "promiscuous kisses … especially those of the non-essential variety," adding that an "infection kiss … can really to be the kiss of death.
Farmers wore masks in the early 1900s to avoid catching the Spanish flu. (Photo: furnished photo)
Read the Bible or a library book
Newspapers printed pastors' sermons so that the faithful, who must cope with a boiling world in addition to a possible deadly disease, could read them. Reverend Robert Gammon urged families to organize home-based services.
"If nothing more is done than reading the Bible as a family, it will be beneficial," Gammon said. "Do not think that because the doors of our churches are closed for security reasons, we may not be able to carry out our usual Sabbath program. Let's have 10,000 services in Knoxville next Sunday instead of 10,000 in 75 congregations. "
The Lawson McGhee Library has remained open for people to read books. Librarians reported that more and more people were reading, probably because they could not go to the movies to watch movies. But the library did not want anyone to linger. The chairs were removed from the tables and the windows were open to allow fresh air to circulate.
But more people have fallen ill. Newspapers reported that 1,950 people had the flu and five people died on October 12. The numbers are not accurate; Some people have not called a doctor and some doctors have not always indicated the number of their patients. On October 15, the number of patients reached 2,943, including five doctors too sick to care for others.
As fewer soldiers in the camps fell ill, more civilians were sick. "The disease has affected all parts of the city and killed people," the Sentinel reported on October 19. "In the county, few communities are free of the disease, and in many cases entire families have been hit. . Neighbors came to the rescue and acted as nurses for the affected families until at least one of the members could recover from the illness in order to help the other victims . "
The burials were "plantations"
Small communities around eastern Tennessee have also been hit hard. In the state of Coalfield, a city in Morgan County out of 500 residents, more than 90 percent of the residents have been infected, the state said.
And for national centers for disease control and prevention Pandemic Influenza Storybook, an agency project to mark the 90th anniversary of the pandemic in 2008, Robert Lynn Davis explained how his father, a lumberjack named Arthur Duery Davis, had been set to dig graves in the county from Blount.
"There was no time to build coffins, since the bodies were buried as quickly as possible," Davis said. "My father always described funerals as" plantations. "One story in particular, which he has told over and over again, is this:" One morning at 6 am I had to dig three graves for a family. six people who lived down the road from my home. Around 9 am, the doctor sent a message to dig another grave. Then, around noon, I was told to dig another grave, and at four o'clock I was asked to dig the last grave for the whole family. & # 39; "
At the 2008 National Pandemic Influenza Summit, Health and Social Services Secretary Mike Leavitt read in the medical journal of a Tennessee physician:
"The man who dug his neighbor's grave today may be leading the funeral procession next week. We do not know who will be next.
At the end of October, the epidemic decreased. More than 9,500 Knoxvillians have been reported sick; 132 died – almost as much as during the fighting during the war. However, throughout the state, more than twice as many people died of the flu than during the war.
1918 tips to prevent the Spanish flu
- Stay at home, do not put yourself in the crowd. "The flu is a widespread disease," according to the Knoxville Sentinel story of October 5, 1918.
- Smother your coughing and sneezing – "the others do not want the germs you throw".
- Breathe through the nose, not through the mouth.
- "Remember the three C's – a clean mouth, clean skin and clean clothes."
- "Try to stay cool when you walk and warm when you ride and sleep."
- Open windows, especially at home at night.
- Wash hands before eating.
- "Do not let digestion waste accumulate – drink a glass or two of water when you get up."
- "Avoid tight clothes, tight shoes, tight gloves."
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