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When Winfred Henry Asa Pike fought during the First World War, he surely knew that he might not be returning to his family.
But what the Navy lieutenant and graduate of the US Naval Academy Reno could not have imagined is that he was going to lose his life – not in combat, but to a deadly flu crisis the day after the signing of the armistice which ended the fighting.
This makes Pike the victim of two simultaneous events that changed the planet, the First World War and the 1918 global influenza pandemic. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the influenza epidemic, which according to the Centers for the control and prevention of the disease remains, even today, one of the most lethal epidemics in history.
500 million people
According to the CDC, about 500 million people, or about one-third of the world's population, have been infected with the influenza virus during the pandemic, which has claimed at least 50 million lives worldwide and about 675,000 in the USA.
The CDC adds that the pandemic was so lethal that life expectancy in the United States was reduced by about 12 years – only 36.6 years for men and 42.2 years for women – from 1917 to 1918.
Of course, the pandemic has not spared Nevada. Ilana Short of the Nevada State Museum Las Vegas conducted a research on the influenza years for the exhibition titled "The Great War: The Western Front and the Nevada Home Front," which unfolds until In April at the museum and the Origen museum of the reserve.
The pandemic officially killed about 40 people in southern Nevada at a time when the population of Las Vegas was about 2,000 people. The Nevada State Health Council reported that the state had nearly 4,000 cases of influenza in 1918.
But these numbers can also be artificially low. It was not necessary to report cases of influenza at the time, brief notes, and the death toll does not account for deaths from pneumonia – the state recorded 565 cases of pneumonia in 1918 – that could have been associated with the flu.
The pandemic began in the United States in the spring of 1918 and broke into three waves that continued throughout the winter of 1918-19. The second wave was the most deadly.
"At one point, the virus has mutated, and that's when you start receiving this huge wave," says Short. "October and November 1918 were the two deadliest months of the pandemic. Then you had a third and last wave in winter (1919) that presented the same type of symptoms, but we know that it was the same virus because the people who survived the first wave had immunity against both second waves. "
Various theories have traced the origin of the pandemic to places including a Kansas military camp and China. Be that as it may, "the fact that the war was going on at the same time allowed it to spread rapidly," Short says, through the malnutrition associated with the war in Europe, battle trenches and congested military camps as well as troop movements around the world.
The virus involved was also targeting an unusual demographic group.
"We generally think that most (flu viruses) affect the very young and the very old and the immunocompromised, but this flu was the opposite," says Short. "This kills, proportionately, people aged 15 to 45, more than any other age group."
"There are stories of people walking down the street who have fallen steeply," she says, and "children going to bed at night without waking up in the morning."
The flu hit hard during its second wave from September to November 1918. The exhibit points out that Las Vegas City Council passed an order requiring people to wear a mask in public, and the Health Council of the State of Nevada, in October, imposed a quarantine on schools and health centers. "Public places of amusement."
Public meetings and rallies were canceled – the exhibit includes the minutes of the Goldfield Women's Club stating that its November 1918 meeting had been canceled because of the flu – while the traders removed the chairs from the public places to reduce incentives to stay long without doing anything.
At the time, Las Vegas housed a 12-bed hospital and a handful of doctors, says the show. Families took care of influenza victims in houses marked by quarantine signs, and when the city's funeral director fell ill, friends and family members of the influenza victims used the manufacture of cardboard coffins.
Newspapers in the region, fearing to abide by laws prohibiting the morale of staff, have not necessarily acted aggressively to cover the pandemic. According to the exhibit, the United States "repressed press freedom to try to maintain morale," while newspapers "downplayed negative stories," thus helping to give the flu an incorrect common name.
"Because of Spain's neutrality, they were able to publish what they wanted," said Short, and a detailed account of the pandemic in that country "gave the rest of the world the 39 impression that Spain was particularly affected by the disease. This is how he received the nickname "Spanish flu". "
The last wave of the pandemic took place in early 1919 and went through the spring, says the CDC. In the summer, the pandemic faded, although Short said the virus continued to be observed in the 1920s.
The Nevada State Museum exhibition will run until the end of April. Despite all the advances in medicine since then, there is really nothing that can prevent a similar pandemic today, says Short.
We now know that the virus that caused the pandemic "was a variant of the H1N1 strain, which we see every year," says Short. "Some people say it's only a matter of time before we have a mutation like this."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a pandemic occurs when new influenza viruses that are "able to infect people and spread from one person to another in an efficient and sustainable way" emerge.
The agency identifies four influenza pandemics in the last century – 1918, 1957, 1968 and 2009 – with the 1918 pandemic being the worst.
Can a pandemic like that of 1918 recur? Of course, said Dr. Joseph Iser, health officer of the Southern Nevada Health District.
"Scientists are always looking for new strains of flu around the world," he said, with the goal of identifying those that could change in a way that would affect humans.
But with the wide range of strains existing or likely to appear, it is likely that, according to Dr. Iser, "there will be another pandemic".
This is now a good time to emphasize the need to follow basic flu prevention practices well before anything happens.
First, get a flu shot every year.
It is true that "all influenza vaccines do not have the same effectiveness from one year to the next," says Iser. This is because influenza vaccines are produced several months in advance depending on the predictions of influenza strains that may circulate.
However, even a less than perfect match will reduce the risk of contracting the flu and, if the flu appears, make it less serious and less long lasting.
Many people "still have an inappropriate fear of vaccines," says Iser, but "nothing proves the existence of any of the (negative) claims made by people about vaccines."
Use basic hygiene practices, including frequent hand washing, especially after touching potentially infected surfaces such as doorknobs. The flu virus "does not live so long," says Iser, but it can survive for hours on surfaces.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. These are the easiest ways by which viruses are transmitted.
Sneeze or cough in the crook of your dressed arm. "Try not to use towels, tissues or kleenex because they are usually impregnated," he says.
Take care of yourself in general. Rest, stay hydrated, eat healthy and exercise regularly because "it boosts your immune system," says Iser. "Do the kinds of things your mother told you to do."
Finally, "if you are sick, do not go to school, do not go to work".
Pandemic time line
Here, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are some key events of the 1918 influenza pandemic.
April 1917: The United States enters the First World War.
March 1918: outbreaks of influenza illness are reported in the United States and more than 100 soldiers at a military camp in Kansas are struck.
April 1918: The first mention of influenza – about 18 serious cases and three deaths in Kansas – appears in a weekly public health report.
September 1918: A second wave of influenza strikes an army training camp and naval facilities in Boston. The second wave of influenza culminates between September and November and is responsible for most of the deaths caused by the pandemic.
October 1918: The pandemic kills about 195,000 Americans during this month. The United States is experiencing a serious shortage of nurses, due to both the deployment of nurses by the military and the lack of qualified African American nurses. In Philadelphia, a heavily affected region, cold storage serves as a temporary morgue, and a streetcar manufacturer donates 200 crates of coffins.
November 1918: the First World War ends.
January 1919: The third wave of the pandemic strikes winter and spring, causing even more casualties before diminishing in the summer. According to the CDC, the number of civilian and military deaths during the pandemic has exceeded the number of deaths resulting from the First World War.
Related
Taught by the tragedy, the mother of Las Vegas became a flu vaccine specialist
Contact John Przybys at jprzybys @ reviewjournal.com or at 702-383-0280. To follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.
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