Short Term Diseases
Case File: Spanish Flu
TRAVELLER HAS SPANISH FLU
This quote appeared on the front page of the Wooster Daily News for Tuesday October 8, 1918 1 “Traveler Has Spanish “Flu”,” Wooster Daily News (Wooster, OH), Oct. 8, 1918 The paper reported that there were no cases in the county aside from this traveler who was a cook taking a train from North Dakota to Washington D.C. The article ends by saying that nearby Plain and Franklin Townships had closed their schools because Shreve was experiencing a rough outbreak.
This story was beginning to play out across the United States as numerous towns and cities, both big and small, were becoming aware of this new ‘Spanish Flu’ sweeping the country and the rail lines. Nearby Cleveland was slowly beginning to close some of its movie theaters as it readied itself for the impact of the Spanish Flu. 2 “Influenza Encyclopedia,” Cleveland, Ohio and the 1918-1919 Influenza Epidemic | The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918: A Digital Encyclopedia (The University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine and Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library), accessed July 1, 2020, https://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-cleveland.html.
Health officials framed these health efforts as war measures because World War I was ongoing. At the time there was a great fear on how Spanish Flu would affect soldiers in the army where there were high outbreaks, and how it would affect overall war production. In the following images you see how Spanish Flu would rip through army bases such as the bedridden soldiers from Fort Riley in Kansas and how U.S. propaganda tried to persuade the public on the threat of the incoming storm.
That storm would go on to claim nearly 675,000 lives here in the U.S. which is easily eclipsed by the 50,000,000 lives it destroyed around the world. These losses were the unlucky ones out of an estimated 500,000,000 infected. Wooster was no exception, two weeks later on October 21, 1918; the Wooster Daily Republican would report that 238 cases of Spanish Flu had been reported in the county. 3 “238 Cases Are On Book Today,” Wooster Daily Republican (Wooster, OH), Oct. 21, 1918.
That same edition of the paper would also report on how that several residents in Orrville had died because of the virus, 4 “Personals,” Wooster Daily Republican (Wooster, OH), Oct. 21, 1918. along with a College of Wooster student who died at her home after leaving campus to try and escape the outbreak. 5 “Student Girl Dies From Flu,” Wooster Daily Republican (Wooster, OH), Oct. 21, 1918.
Case File: Swine Flu
In January of 1976, several young soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey suddenly fell ill. It didn’t take long for scientists to connect the ailment with a new strain of H1N1, more commonly known as the Swine Flu. Most alarmingly, the strain shared several common elements with the 1918 strain that killed half a million in the U.S. alone. 6 Neustadt, Richard E. and Fineberg, Harvey F. The Swine Flu Affair: Decision Making on a Slippery Disease. (Washington DC: National Academies Press, 1978.)
At the time the strain was identified, it had been suggested by scientists that swine flu, having last been seen in epidemic proportions during the 1918 pandemic, would become the next pandemic. The fear and devastation of 1918 had lurked beneath the surface of scientific research into disease for decades. And while there wasn’t overwhelming evidence to suggest that the new strain would be an efficient killer, there was no evidence that it wouldn’t be. 7 ibid.
In this context, it makes sense that the U.S. prematurely launched a national immunization program. The program, which was shut down early, successfully inoculated 40 million Americans. However, serious problems quickly emerged: issuing a vaccine for the wrong virus, failure to calculate children’s dosages, and deaths due to a rare vaccine induced condition. These were among the more prominent causes for the program’s early shutdown. 8 ibid.
The national immunization program following the discovery of a new strain of Swine Flu in 1976 to this day remain a controversial topic. In many ways it was a watershed moment in U.S. attitudes concerning healthcare. The story is complex and resulted in diverse social movements.
While the national immunization program seemingly was a disaster, it led to several instrumental changes in U.S. attitudes and policies surrounding healthcare. The first was the birth of the anti-Vaccine movement, which initially was formed in response to the deaths caused by the ‘76 vaccine but remains a prominent force in healthcare politics today. 9 Nuestadt, Richard E. and Fineburg, Harvey V. The Swine Flu Affair: Decision Making on a Slippery Disease. (Washington DC: National Academies Press, 1978.) Secondly, was the implementation of comprehensive reforms including the establishment of the National Vaccine Program Office, information transparency, new procedures for vaccine testing, and the establishment of four new committees under the Institute of Medicine to study vaccine reactions: The Committee to Review the Adverse Consequences of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines, The Vaccine Safety Committee, the Committee to Study New Research on Vaccines, and the Vaccine Safety Forum. 10 Vaccine Safety: History.” Center for Disease Control and Prevention. October, 2015. Online at CDC. These programs have been incredibly successful in preventing another incident like the ’76 swine-flu immunization program. And to this day, they provide protections for millions of Americans. 11 Committee reports: Center for Disease Control and Institute of Medicine, Update: Vaccine Side Effects, Adverse Reactions, Contradictions, and Precautions Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. (Washington DC: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1996.); Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Institute of Medicine, Adverse Effects of Pertussis and Rubella Vaccines. (Washington DC: National AcademyPress, 1991.); Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Institute of Medicine, Adverse Events Associated with Childhood Vaccines: Evidence Bearing on Causality. (Washington DC: National AcademyPress, 1994.);Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Institute of Medicine, DTP Vaccine and Chronic Nervous System Dysfunction: A New Analysis. (Washington DC: National AcademyPress, 1994.); Division of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Institute of Medicine, Vaccine Safety Forum: Summaries of Two Workshops. (Washington DC: National AcademyPress, 1997.)