THE SPANISH FLU OF 1918

A scourge on the scale of the Black Death plague that ravaged Europe in 1350 struck virtually the entire world in 1918. The deadly virus, known as the Spanish flu, infected one-third of the world's population, killing anywhere from 20 to 100 million people worldwide. (It was called the Spanish flu, to Spain's dismay, because one of the first places to be stricken was San Sebastian, a sunny tourist town on the north coast.) 28 percent of all Americans got the flu, and about 600,000 of them died.

Nobody knew where the disease came from, and theories abound to this day. Since the first American cases were on the East coast (Boston), rumors of German germ warfare emerged. Believing that it spread by contagion, the Minneapolis Health Department ordered streetcar windows to stay open and shut down schools, theaters, churches, etc. until that December. Other (discredited) theories blame burning manure at a Kansas Army base or a mutation from a bird virus into pigs and then into people.

But in fact, the virus died if outside the body, and experiments showed that it was not spread person-to-person. In addition, it hit every corner of the world within a week, from Eskimo villages to South Africa (only Australia and some other remote islands escaped), leading scientists to theorize that it was somehow living dormant.

The first strain, which circulated in March and April of 1918, was debilitating, especially to the troops in American bases and fighting in Europe, but most recovered in about three days. Instead of targeting babies and the elderly, it was especially prevalent with young people ages 20 to 40, leading to one theory that it only struck those who were exposed to the 1890 flu as babies, or that the disease was akin to the chicken pox, which is a mild children's disease but much more dangerous to adults. Those who had had the disease in the spring were immune to the fall strain.

In September a different, deadly strain appeared. In Gina Kolata's book Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It (1999), the disease is described in gruesome detail:

You might notice a dull headache. Your eyes might start to burn. You start to shiver and you will take to your bed, curling up in a ball. But no amount of blankets can keep you warm. You fall into a restless sleep, dreaming the distorted nightmares of delirium as your fever climbs. And when you drift out of sleep, into a sort of semi-consciousness, your muscles will ache and your head will throb... Your face turns a dark brownish purple. You start to cough up blood. Your feet turn black. Finally, as the end nears, you frantically gasp for breath. A blood-tinged saliva bubbles out of your mouth. You die - by drowning, actually - as your lungs fill with a reddish fluid...your lungs [are] lying heavy and sodden in your chest, engorged with a thin bloody liquid, useless, like slabs of liver.

By March 1919, 1,111 Minneapolis residents had died. At Minneapolis General, all non-flu patients were moved to private hospitals, and for six weeks, 1,115 patients were treated; nearly one in four died. The disease managed to kill 7,521Minnesotans in 1918 and more than 4,200 over the course of the following two years. Adding to the disaster locally was a shortage of doctors, who were away on military service or attending to the survivors of the forest fire that had raced through northeastern Minnesota on October 12, 1918, killing 453 people.

The flu ended only because anyone who had survived it was immune to it, and the gene would have to mutate or die.

In the 1990's, scientists tried to resurrect the 1918 virus in order to study it with modern procedures and equipment. Eventually three samples were found: two that Army doctors had preserved and had been stored in a warehouse for years, and one that was obtained from an obese woman buried in the permafrost in Brevik, Alaska. Scientists continue to work with these samples and their genetic information, and no definitive answer has yet been found.

There are still no cures for viruses, and the only protection against the flu is a vaccine. Flu vaccines were developed in the 1930's, although smaller outbreaks occurred in 1957 and 1968. Despite the Swine Flu debacle of 1976, yearly flu shots are routine today.

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This information comes from a variety of sources: newspapers, books, yearbooks, phone directories, interviews, etc. Given the varied sources, we cannot guarantee that all of this information is correct, and welcome any additions and corrections. Please contact us with your contributions and comments.