The Toll of Influenze, We Heard the Bells

602 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: 1918 flu pandemic

In 1918-1919, the worst flu in recorded history occurred, killing an estimated 50 million people worldwide. The U.S. death toll was 675,000 - five times the number of U.S. soldiers killed in World War I. Crazy! This flu was unlike any other, and in infected unlike any other. Not to mention, the progression of this illness was extremely quick. One minute you’re fine and the next you’re suffering from a high-grade fever and lying on your death bed.
Unlike the influenza virus that many are familiar with today, this form of the virus targeted -- and killed -- the young and healthy. This to me was an interesting fact as it is more common that viruses affect those who are elderly, pregnant, under the age of five, or suffer from chronic conditions. Although they did mention in the video that those who were pregnant died just as fast those who were young and healthy. The thing that got me is that they said they were unsure as to why the pregnant were dying just as fast. Using what I have learned throughout my semesters in college, it seems to me that these women were dying because of the s...

Show More
Related

  • First They Came For, By Eve Bunting And Terrible Things: Allegory Of

    414 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the poem,”First they Came for,” by Martin Niemoller, the author used several literary elements to support the text structure, which was plot and conflict. Similarly, in the short story, ”Terrible Things: Allegory of the Holocaust,” by Eve Bunting, the author also used several literary elements to support the text structure which was plot and conflict. Not only do these texts share the same text structure, they also share a common theme of standing up against injustice even if you are not affected by it. Another way that these texts are similar is the topic of the content, which is the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the mass killing of people who were Jewish, Homosexual, disabled or Gypsie by the Nazis, throughout Europe during the 1930-40

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis of Heeding the Call by Diana Childress

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is no secret that Martin Luther King Jr. did great things. We have learned in school that he was a leader in the movement to desegregate the South. He has served as a role model for people across the globe. But even though Martin did change the world for the better, it was not without hardships. We gathered new information on Dr. King in the essay, “Heeding the Call” by Diana Childress. From his childhood to his last days, Martin faced massive opposition. Still, all of these challenges brought Martin the wisdom and idealism he used throughout his life.

    Read More

  • William F. May's Rising to the Occasion of Our Death

    1791 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are three key audiences of the text for William F. May's “Rising to the Occasion of Our Death.” The first audience, in this case, would be legislative organizations or lawmakers who have researched and studied similar cases regarding euthanasia. Since May was as an ethics professor at Southern Methodist University, his tone is decidedly intellectual. An uneducated individual would find it more difficult to read his essay; for example, in declarations such as “Advocates of active euthanasia appeal to the principle of patient autonomy,” May's syntax and tone is formal, informative, and utilizes heavy technical jargon (May 662). In other words, it is authoritative, and enables the audience to view him as a credible source due to his syntactical confidence. Other organizations, lobbyists, or lawmakers who are researching evidence on euthanasia would certainly benefit from reading his expert opinion on the matter. Moreover, his desire to develop a “judicious, regulated policy” is a certain acknowledgement that he is attempting to legally call for regulations on euthanasia (May 662).

    Read More

  • Overview of the Herpes Virus

    1256 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...nd make people aware that it is more common than people realize and that a rather large part of America has the illness, whether they know it or not. This paper also discussed how the virus, could target certain individuals more easily than others based on the genetic makeup of an individual and families.

    Read More

  • Influenza Virus' Economic and Social Disruption to Society

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Influenza virus is a unique respiratory viral disease that can have serious economic and social disruption to society. The virus is airborne transmitted through droplets release by coughing or sneezing from an infected person or by touching infected surfaces. Symptoms range from mild to severe and may even result in death. People with the virus usually experience fever, headache, shivering, muscle pain and cough, which can lead to more severe respiratory illness such as pneumonia. People most susceptible to the flu virus are elderly individuals and young children as well as anyone whose health or immune system has been compromise. The most effective way to counteract the influenza virus is to get the flu vaccine which is available by shots or nasal spray before the flu season as well as practicing safe hygiene. (CDC, 2013)

    Read More

  • WWI Sources

    1627 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...ssor Heather MacDougall, “July – 11 November 1918: Pandemic Influenza on the Battlefield and Homefront,” Lecture delivered 9 November, 2011, HIST 191, University of Waterloo

    Read More

  • 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic during World War I

    1503 Words  | 4 Pages

    Every year, flu viruses make people sick. Even a garden-variety flu may kill people, but usually only the very young or the very old. In 1918, the flu mutated into something much more deadly. Infecting 500 million people and killing 50-100 million of them, the strain of that type of flu was hastened by World War 1, which increased the lethality of the virus, giving that flu many opportunities to spread during World War 1. At the time that the flu was spreading, science wasn’t advanced enough to find a cure, and medical personnel were extremely helpless when it came to trying to fight the disease.

    Read More

  • Quarantines In Canada

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the fall of 1918, a vicious and deadly virus quickly spread through the entirety of Canada, effecting many healthy young men and women. Killing close to 50 000 Canadians in a single year, the Spanish Influenza is considered to be one of the most fatal pandemics in Canadian history. In 1918, quarantines were not a new concept, but the quality and quantity of quarantines changed impressively during the fight against the Spanish flu. Unlike quarantines, vaccines were a completely new phenomenon; prior to the flu epidemic, there was almost no history of vaccines in Canada. However, quarantines and vaccines were not the only measures Canadians took to prevent the spread of the flu, there were other

    Read More

  • Avian Influenza and Its Expected Ramifications

    2754 Words  | 6 Pages

    It is necessary in order to understand Avian Flu's impacts on society to first understand what H5N1 influenza is. Like any virus, influenza viruses cannot reproduce on their own the way bacteria can. Technically, viruses aren’t even alive because in order for them to reproduce, they must take over the living cell of another organism. This makes all viral diseases notoriously hard to cure because modern research has yet to reveal a medication or procedure that can kill a virus without killing its host. The best medications that we currently have available to treat viruses can only prevent the virus fro...

    Read More

  • Government Responses and Expectations During the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 occurred during the midst of World War I, and it would claim more lives than the war itself. The disease erupted suddenly without a forewarning and spread rapidly across the globe. It seemed as though all of humanity had fallen under the mercy of this deadly illness. Influenza had very clear symptoms as described by William Collier in his letter to The Lancet. After a patient seizes their temperature can run up to 105° or more while their pulse averages at about 90 beats per minute. The high temperature and low pulse are frequently combined with epistaxis (nosebleed) and cyanosis (blueness of the skin). The epistaxis is caused by the high temperature and the cyanosis is caused by a lack of oxygen due to the decreased pulse (Kent 34). The author of Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919, Susan Kinglsey Kent, provides a brief history of the pandemic and documents from the time period. Many of the included documents show how unprepared and unorganized governments attempted to contain and control a disease they had never experienced, and how the expectations of the governments changed as a result of their successes and failures.

    Read More

  • Influenza

    607 Words  | 2 Pages

    Influenza, normally called “the flu”, the influenza virus causes an infection in the respiration tract. Even though the influenza virus can sometimes be compared with the common cold. It also can cause a more severe illness or death. During this past century, pandemics took place in 1918, 1957, and 1968, in all of these cases there where unfortunately many deaths. The “Spanish flu” in 1918, killed approximately half a million people in the United States alone. It killed around 20 million worldwide. The “Asian flu” in 1957, in the United States their 70,000 people died. In 1968 the “Hong-Kong flu” There where 34,000 deaths in the United States.

    Read More

  • Economic Impact of the 1918 Epidemic of Spanish Flu

    648 Words  | 2 Pages

    Typically, the majority of those who die as a result of the flu are the elderly, and children. Under normal circumstances, this leaves the majority of the working class intact, and any major economic impact is spared. However, the 1918 flu epidemic is unique in that the majority of those who died were of working ages, between 15 and 50. Also, males were disproportionately more likely to die due to flu-related causes. During this time period, men dominated the workforce.

    Read More

  • On The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

    530 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Masque of the Red Death, Edgar Allan Poe writes about how Prince Prospero holds a masque in a sealed abbey to try to forget about the Red Death. There are seven rooms in the abbey which have matching windows and decorations. A figure dressed as a deceased individual appears in the midst of the masque; Prince Prospero chases him to the scarlet room where he dies followed by everyone else. Edgar Allan Poe once said, “It is my design to render it manifest that no point in its composition is referable either to accident or intuition…” Poe placed imagery and symbolism in The Masque of the Red Death to design meaning into the story. This statement is true at least for The Masque of the Red Death. Poe chose have the revelers die in the black and scarlet room and have the rooms go from east to west. It was his intention to use dream language when describing the masque.

    Read More

  • High School Flu Research Paper

    530 Words  | 2 Pages

    I’m from Jefferson City and the closes town that the flu of 1918 hit was Columbia. This flu had a major impact on the University of Missouri students. The student body was recommended not to leave campus for visits because of how deadly this flu was. They ask the people that lived in Columbia to avoid the University and large crowds. One physician was concerned about those who had a common cold. From September 26- December 26 over a thousand students contracted the flu. People were dying anywhere from 12-48 hours of the flu. In October the mayor stopped those who lived in Columbia from meeting until they could get a handle on the flu. Only people allowed to come and go on the campus were the students in the army training corps. They figured

    Read More

  • Influenza Vaccination

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some of the class content we have gone over is very dry and not that useful but majority of it is really important. First evidence of class content is “… onset fever, cough, and vomiting” ( CDC, 2009, p. 2606). This here would be considered a case definition where they pick certain symptoms for one individual to count in that record. Also in this section in the article it had mentioned that with the first case with the little boy eventually got better over time and in our community health science class we call that self-limiting. Further on in the journal it continues to describe the percentage of patients into a ratio. “ The age of hospitalized patients ranged from 19 months to 51 years… 4 were children under the age of 5 years old, and 1 patient was pregnant, nine had chronic medical conditions.” ( CDC 2009, p. 2608). This relates closely with the Washington Post regarding vaccines and how certain individuals are at higher risk than others. If we could get the herd immunity up our odds would be better. Where we want majority protected. More evidence of class content is betrayed in these next two quotes. First one is referring to a diagram of the United States and how many cases per state. “ As of May 5, 2009 there was 642 confirmed cases of human infection with swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus in the United States” (CDC, 2009, p. 2609). The only states or districts that had no cases were Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Arkansas, Missouri, Vermont, West Virginia, and District Columbia. This relates to the Triangle with the host, pathogen, environment, and reservoir. The environment could easily have been a factor in why those ten states did not have any cases. Now the quote that has everything and in-between class content. “ On April 25, the WHO declared a public health

    Read More

More about The Toll of Influenze, We Heard the Bells

Open Document