Influenza Pandemic Effects On Public Health

Effect of Public Health

The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 had a major effect on the public health in America at the time. Coordination between different levels and branches of government improved communication regarding the spread of influenza, improved the amount of people in hospitals, increased the spread of vaccines, and led to improvements in infection control and containment of the flu. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1997248/).

Authoritative Measures

The influenza pandemic occurred in a manner that shocked many. It spread extremely fast which finally brought it to the attention of the government. The fact that World War I was going on pressured governments even more to do something about the pandemic (Hayes 390). The public health authorities in the United States created their plan of containment similar to what they did with the Bubonic plague. Their plan of action was to reduce contact between individuals. Their ideas were created based on their knowledge of how the virus spread which was through the air by coughing and sneezing. Since they came to the conclusion that the virus spread through the air, they tried to limit the contact between the effected and those not effected so they would not share the same air. Public gatherings and meeting places were seen as a threat and a great place for the virus to spread and so were closed down. In the United States, the Committee of the American Public Health Association, APHA, created measures that greatly limited public gatherings. They concluded that the gathering of bodies in a single space in which breath was shared was dangerous. Many places of entertainment such as theatres, saloons, and dance halls were closed. Even public funerals were banned. Schools were cl...

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...mptoms and known pattern of disease. Experiments by scientists, Nicolle and Le Bailly in Paris, were the earliest explanations that influenza was caused by a filter-passing virus. They proved that influenza was due to a submicroscopic infectious agent and not a bacteria. Scientific experiments, such as these, had immediate preventative applications. They were part of an effort to create a vaccine that would prevent the influenza. Vaccines were considered the best preventative treatment at the time. Several scientists tried to create effective vaccines, each with a different understanding of the virus. Dr. Rosenow invented a vaccine to target the multiple bacterial agents involved from the serum of patients. He aimed to raise the immunity against the bacteria, and not the cause of the initial symptoms (Virginia).

The Effect of the War on the Spread of the Influenza