Influenza hit the world in 1918. This virus was a global disaster. It killed more than the Great War, known today as World War I.  Seventy million people died!  This is the most devastating epidemic recorded in world history.  Influenza was also known as the “Spanish Flu” in the U.S.  or “La Grippe,”.  It was called Spanish Flu because it struck in Spain early with great killing efficiency. The flu was most deadly for people between the ages of 19 to 42!  This was considered unusual since epidemics usually killed the old and the young, not individuals in the middle years when they were strongest. The symptoms of the virus were fevers that reached 105 degrees, coughing, wheezing, sore throat, headaches, and a loss of appetite and often-great pain.  Nobody really knows where the virus came from but it started when soldiers at Fort Riley, Kansas burned tons of manure.   Others believe that the disease started in the Middle Eastern battlefields of World War I.  Doctors were baffled when they first came across the virus. They didn’t know what it was. On November 3rd, 1918 the news of the world suggested some anti-flu precautions:

 

1. Wash inside nose with soap and water each night and morning

2. Force yourself to sneeze night and morning, then breathe deeply

3. Do not wear a muffler; a wooly scarf that was popular in those days.

4. Take  quick  walks regularly and walk home from work

5. Eat plenty of porridge

 

The virus originally came from U.S. pigs!  It was a mutation from these animals and was spread around the globe by U.S. troops mobilized for World War I. Young men massed in ships and training camps, led to close quarters that helped the illness travel to France and throughout the United States. Victims developed bronchial pneumonia or septicemic blood poisoning. The virus moved from the military population to the general public.  In the United States, major cities provided a killing field for the virus as soldiers arrived in U.S. ports from various places. One thousand people died in Boston by the end of September, 1918.  Philadelphia lost more than 4,500 residents to the virus by late October.  The death toll rose to nearly 13,000 in that city alone.  In San Francisco, more than 3,500 people died by the end of 1918. And in New York City, the Health Department reported that about 10% of the population had the flu!  The Weekly Bulletin of the Department of Health in New York City of November 2, 1918 reported that there were 101,007 cases of influenza since the inception of the epidemic” and “13,260 cases of pneumonia.”  America had a death toll 675,000 because of the virus by the end of the year.  It infected 28% of all Americans.  In Germany by the end of the summer, the virus had hit the German Army. Over 400,000 civilians died.  The virus created serious problems for Germany . and may have contributed to their loss in the war. Influenza also hit Glasgow, Britain in May 1918.  It soon spread to other towns and cities and during the next few months, the virus killed 228,000 people in Britain. This was the highest mortality rate for any epidemic since the outbreak of cholera in 1849.  In Britain, desperate measures were used to prevent the spread of the virus. Streets were sprayed with chemicals and people started wearing anti-germ masks.  Some factories changed their no-smoking rules under the mistaken impression that tobacco fumes could kill the virus.   Others believed that eating plenty of porridge would protect you from the deadly disease.  However, despite valiant attempts, all the treatments were useless. The virus was unstoppable. The country that suffered the most was India. The virus first appeared in Bombay on June 1918. The following month, deaths were being reported in Karachi and Madras. With large numbers of India’s doctors serving the British army, the country was unable to cope with this. Some people claimed that in between June 1918 and 1919 over 16,000,000 people in India died of the virus.

 

Influenza in NewYork

Influenza killed many people in New York. It was like a mass murdering.  The estimated normal number of deaths of influenza from September to December of 1918 was 3,371.  The estimated number of deaths on January to June of 1919 was 7,388.  During September 1918 to June of 1910, the total amount of deaths was 10,759. The excess amount of deaths in New York was 24,943. The borough that had the most deaths was Manhattan.   Manhattan lost 9,857 people.  Brooklyn came second with a death rate of 9,165.  The Bronx third with 3,181. Then came Queens who lost 1,976.  Richmond (Staten Island) only lost 147 lives.  Manhattan probably lost more lives because many people worked there and lived close together in tenements. Tenements were like the projects for the newly arrived immigrants and poor people.  They were overcrowded, dark and dirty with very little air circulating.  Cities also contributed to the high death rate because the sanitary conditions were not good.  In those days cities were dirty places.

 

Influenza Affecting Hospitals

 

 When influenza hit, hospitals became over-crowded with people of all nationalities. When patients came in with the disease, the doctors or nurses would sometimes get it and die.

Two of the brave nurses who risked their lives helping people  lived in Brooklyn.  These deaths were reported in the Health Bulletin of December, 1918:

 

“Miss May Givens

 Miss Givens lived at 51 Nevis Street, Brooklyn. She was appointed temporary nurse, January 5 1918. Miss Givens was a most concientious and satisfactory employee. During the epidemic, she worked unusually hard not only giving full hours of service to her hospital, but also working overtime in caring fir school children who were ill with influenza. In this work she contracted the disease, and died on November 1,1918.

 

Miss Estelle Van Hoesen

 

“Miss van Hoesen lived at 203 Underhill Avenue, Brooklyn.  She was appointed temporary nurse on August 12, 1918. When the epidemic of influenza developed, Miss Van Hoes was assigned to duty at Kingston Avenue Hospital. While there she contracted influenza. She was taken ill October 25 and died on October 30.”  Kingston Avenue Hospital no longer exists but it was located near where Kings County Hospital stands today. The Board of Health did many things to try to stop the spread of the flu.  They adopted a resolution against spitting in public places:

Sec.213, Board of Health Resolution said: Spitting forbidden…on sidewalks of any public street, avenue, park, public square, or place in the City of New York, or upon the floor of any hall in any tenement house which is used in common by the tenants thereof, or upon the floor of any hall or office, or lodging house which used in common…ferryboat, railroad car, or other public conveyance…” People who did not follow these rules could be fined or sent to jail.

 

Influenza hit African Americans and immigrants the most (1918)

 

BELOW IS A CHART OF THE EFFECT OF INFLUENZA ON COMMUNITIES IN NEW YORK CITY.  THIS CHART IS TAKEN FROM THE NYC Health Department Bulletin in 1918.

 

Age Groups Total % Both Districs	62nd Street District White and Negro	Harlem District White and Negro	Both Districts White	Both Districts Negro
Under 1 year… 1.7%	2.4	1.6	1.6	1.8
1-4 years… 6.1%	8.0	5.6	6.9	5.7
5-14 years… 11.8%	15.0	10.9	15.4	9.9
15-24 years… 17%	15.9	18.4	18.9	17.4
25-44 years… 48.0%	54.9	48.5	35.7	54.3
45-64 years… 12.7%	11.6	13.0	18.4	9.8
65 and over… 1.8%	1.1	1.9	3.1	1.0

 

 

 

 

This chart shows the population distributed in two communities in New York City affected by the flu according to occupation, color, and district. During this period, African Americans in the age range of 25-44 had the highest rate of death of all and over half of the young men and women who got the flue died,  In the other category, the chart clearly shows that Black babies were more likely to die from it than white infants. The Health Department didn’t really give a good explanation for why so many African-Americans died.  Whites threw a racial remark saying that they would expect the rate to be high because of the percentage of mothers who were employed and did not have time to spend with their infants. When they could not find a proper answer for why so many Black people were dying they said that freedom had made the black man poorer than he was when he was a slave, and that in general Black people did not know how to take care of themselves.   But it is more likely that poverty, and malnutrition as well as the discriminating treatment of Blacks overall in the City led to such high rates among babies.  The Health Bulletin reported that Blacks were to be found in the lowest paid jobs in the City and admitted that this was due to the ” lack of opportunity which Negroes [has] had had to enter the trades.”

Not only did Black infants and young people die at a higher rate, but so did immigrants. According to the author of America’s Forgotten Pandemic, “They discovered, as could be expected, that the pandemic had struck heavily everywhere,  but somewhat more heavily in the immigrant slums than elsewhere in the city” (p.86-7, Crosby).  Because most immigrants lived in slum housing which was overcrowded and lacked air and light, most immigrants lived in more unhealthy conditions.

 

for New York City the peak was in March, which is possibly significant because that city was the main leaving port for American troops sailing to Europe for W.W. I.   “While few took notice, something new was seeding itself in the throats and lungs of Americans “ and that spring would see more human beings buried than the World War.  But just like war, the virus preferred young adults as victims.”

 

“The Norwegian vessel Bergensfjord arrived in New York harbor on August 12 (1918) carrying many immigrants.  There were 200 cases of influenza and three deaths while at sea.  Eleven passengers were transferred to a hospital in Brooklyn, but they were not placed in isolated wards!   Health Commissioner Royal S. Copeland of New York City tried to push the fear aside by announcing that all the sick put ashore had pneumonia, not the flu.”  Besides, he said, Spanish influenza seldom attacks the well-nourished:  “You haven’t heard of our doughboys getting it, have you?  You bet you haven’t and you won’t…No need for our people to worry over the matter.” (America’s Forgotten Pandemic, Alfred W. Crosby, p.29).  “Despite New York City Health Commissioner Copeland’s statement, health officials were worried.” (Crosby, p.31)