The Influenza of 1918

North Carolina: Morgan Reynolds Publishing, 2009. Print. Kolata, Gina. Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Cause It. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.

(n.d.). The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918: A Digital Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 27, 2013, from http://www.influenzaarchive.org/ Jensenius;, J. C. (2006). Vaccine Against Spanish Flu. Science, 311(5767), 1552b-1552b.

US national Library of Health Medicine, January 20, 2004. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC340389/ “The Spanish Flu Epidemic Begins: March 11, 1918." Global Events: Milestone Events Throughout History. Ed. Jennifer Stock.

Figure 1. Combined weekly influenza and pneumonia mortality, United Kingdom, 1918-1919. Reprinted from “1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics,” by Jeffery K. Taubenberger and David M. Morens, 2006, Emerging Infectious Diseases The origin of the H1N1 influenza of 1918 is... ... middle of paper ... ...enza pandemic of 1918 and the search for the virus that caused it. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Maloney, T. N. (2010, February).

Rolling Stone11 Jan. 1990: 29. Print. Williams, Steven. “U.S. Heath Agency Declares Flu Epidemic.” New York Times 26 Jan. 1990: B7.

Doctors have learned just how deadly the flu virus can be which has led to the importance of them educating their patients of the flu virus and explaining the importance of getting the vaccine in order for their bodies to get an immunity of the many flu viruses that many in our country have previously faced. Many in our county in the past have died from the virus due to no vaccines, poor precautions, and being uneducated on the virus because it was new, but new vaccines and precautions are being taken in order to prevent pandemics such as the Flu Pandemic of 1918. Influenza is a highly contagious virus that attacks the respiratory system and is transmitted when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks and the droplets are transmitted through the air to infect another individual. A person can get the virus by touching an area that the virus is and then touching his or her eyes, mouth or nose, which is why it is very important to always wash hands and keep surfaces clean. Vaccines are available to help prevent humans from getting the virus and causing a serious outbreak.

Biological weapons may cause another pandemic to erupt across the world and kill millions of individuals. Through constant vigilance and careful planning, mankind can prevent this scenario. During the course of human history, pandemic diseases have threatened the balance of civilization itself. Viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other infectious agents have changed the way we eat, sleep, and live our lives. One of these scourges was smallpox, a highly infectious and deadly disease that causes boils to sprout on the entire body.

Loo, Yueh-Ming and Michael Gale, Jr. “Influenza: Fatal Immunity and the 1918 Virus.” Nature 445 (2007): 267-268. 23 July. 2008 . Patterson, S. W. “The Pathology of Influenza in France.” The Medical Journal of Australia 1. (1920) The Medical Front WWI.

Because it had swept upon the world so quickly, a cure was not available. The influenza of 1918 took people in a matter of days. A victim could be walking around feeling perfectly healthy one morning, be bedridden by nightfall, and have died before daybreak. Doctors were baffled, and gave vaccines that didn’t work. When one doctor was asked what the vaccine contained of, he said “the vaccines were just a soup made of blood and mucus of flu patients that had been filtered to get rid of large cells and debris” (Kolata 23).

However, smallpox’s ugly face reared itself just recently with the new threat of bioterrorism. Yet this will most likely not affect our society due to the huge amount of preparatory work that would need to be placed into a new smallpox outbreak. For the past twelve thousand years, Smallpox has obliterated societies with ease. Many civilizations found ways to inoculate their citizens with the least amount of symptoms through processes known as variolation and vaccination. Development of the treatment for smallpox mostly began in the end of the eighteenth century and continued through 1970s, until smallpox was eradicated in 1980.