scholarly journals Influenza Circulation in United States Army Training Camps Before and During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Clues to Early Detection of Pandemic Viral Emergence

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel S. Chertow ◽  
Rongman Cai ◽  
Junfeng Sun ◽  
John Grantham ◽  
Jeffery K. Taubenberger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War I ◽  
United States Army ◽  
Respiratory Diseases ◽  
National Guard ◽  
Influenza Pandemic ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Low Incidence ◽  
1918 Influenza

Abstract Background.  Surveillance for respiratory diseases in domestic National Army and National Guard training camps began after the United States’ entry into World War I, 17 months before the “Spanish influenza” pandemic appeared. Methods.  Morbidity, mortality, and case-fatality data from 605 625 admissions and 18 258 deaths recorded for 7 diagnostic categories of respiratory diseases, including influenza and pneumonia, were examined over prepandemic and pandemic periods. Results.  High pandemic influenza mortality was primarily due to increased incidence of, but not increased severity of, secondary bacterial pneumonias. Conclusions.  Two prepandemic incidence peaks of probable influenza, in December 1917–January 1918 and in March–April 1918, differed markedly from the September–October 1918 pandemic onset peak in their clinical-epidemiologic features, and they may have been caused by seasonal or endemic viruses. Nevertheless, rising proportions of very low incidence postinfluenza bronchopneumonia (diagnosed at the time as influenza and bronchopneumonia) in early 1918 could have reflected circulation of the pandemic virus 5 months before it emerged in pandemic form. In this study, we discuss the possibility of detecting pandemic viruses before they emerge, by surveillance of special populations.

A New Approach to Preparing Nurses for War: The Army School of Nursing

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwyneth Milbrath
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War I ◽  
United States Army ◽  
Influenza Pandemic ◽  
The United States ◽  
New Nurses ◽  
School Of Nursing ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Human Conflict

War and human conflict have historically propelled the profession of nursing forward, due to the intense demand for large numbers of efficient, high-quality nurses to care for injured troops. This article begins with an overview of nursing in the United States Army and Navy Nurse Corps and the influences of war on the advancement of American nursing, with a specific focus on the Army School of Nursing. As a response to the need for nurses in World War I, the Army School of Nursing was a novel approach to educating new nurses to be quickly mobilized in wartime and to provide nursing care at base hospitals across the United States. Students provided care to thousands of troops during the influenza pandemic of 1918, and several lost their lives providing care at these military encampments, including Fort Riley, the suspected starting point of the influenza epidemic in the United States.

Major Harvey Cushing's difficulties with the British and American armies during World War I

2014 ◽  
Vol 121 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. Carey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War I ◽  
United States Army ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Us Army ◽  
Hospital Units ◽  
The Us ◽  
Initial Inability

This historical review explores Harvey Cushing's difficulties with both the British and American armies during his World War I service to definitively examine the rumor of his possible court martial. It also provides a further understanding of Cushing the man. While in France during World War I, Cushing was initially assigned to British hospital units. This service began in May 1917 and ended abruptly in May 1918 when the British cashiered him for repeated censorship violations. Returning to American command, he feared court martial. The army file on this matter (retrieved from the United States National Archives) indicates that US Army authorities recommended that Cushing be reprimanded and returned to the US for his violations. The army carried out neither recommendation, and no evidence exists that a court martial was considered. Cushing's army career and possible future academic life were protected by the actions of his surgical peers and Merritte Ireland, Chief Surgeon of the US Army in France. After this censorship episode, Cushing was made a neurosurgical consultant but was also sternly warned that further rule violations would not be tolerated by the US Army. Thereafter, despite the onset of a severe peripheral neuropathy, probably Guillian Barré's syndrome, Cushing was indefatigable in ministering to neurosurgical needs in the US sector in France. Cushing's repeated defying of censorship regulations reveals poor judgment plus an initial inability to be a “team player.” The explanations he offered for his censorship violations showed an ability to bend the truth. Cushing's war journal is unclear as to exactly what transpired between him and the British and US armies. It also shows no recognition of the help he received from others who were instrumental in preventing his ignominious removal from service in France. Had that happened, his academic future and ability to train future neurosurgical leaders may have been seriously threatened. Cushing's foibles notwithstanding, all realized that he contributed greatly to both British and US war neurosurgery. United States Army surgeons who operated upon brain wounds in France recognized Cushing as their leader.

scholarly journals Racial Disparities in Mortality During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in United States Cities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Eiermann ◽  
Elizabeth Wrigley-Field ◽  
James J. Feigenbaum ◽  
Jonas Helgertz ◽  
Elaine Hernandez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Influenza Pandemic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Unexpected Result ◽  
1918 Influenza ◽  
Socio Demographic Factors

The 1918 influenza pandemic stands out because of the unusual age pattern of high mortality. In the United States, another feature merits scientific scrutiny: against a historical backdrop of extreme racial health inequality, the pandemic produced strikingly small ratios of nonwhite to white influenza and pneumonia mortality. We provide the most complete account to date of these racial disparities in 1918, showing that, across U.S. cities, they were almost uniformly small. We examine four potential explanations for this unexpected result, including [1] socio-demographic factors like segregation, [2] city-level implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), [3] exposure to the milder spring 1918 “herald wave,” and [4] early-life exposures to other influenza strains resulting in differential immunological vulnerability to the 1918 flu. While we find little evidence for 1-3, we offer suggestive evidence that racial variation in early-life exposure to the 1889-1892 influenza pandemic shrunk racial disparities during the 1918 pandemic. We also raise the possibility that differential behavioral responses to the herald wave may have protected nonwhite urban populations. By providing a comprehensive description and careful examination of the potential drivers of racial inequality in mortality during the 1918 pandemic, our study provides a framework to consider interactions between the natural history of particular microbial agents and the social histories of the populations they infect.

scholarly journals California and the 1918–1920 Influenza Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 97 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-36
Author(s):  
Diane M. T. North
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War I ◽  
Influenza Pandemic ◽  
Medical Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Virus Spread ◽  
World War ◽  
Military Installations

The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic remains the deadliest influenza pandemic in recorded history. It started in the midst of World War I and killed an estimated 50–100 million people worldwide, many from complications of pneumonia. Approximately 500 million, or one-third of the world's population, became infected. In the United States, an estimated 850,000 died. The exceptionally contagious, unknown strain of influenza virus spread rapidly and attacked all ages, but it especially targeted young adults (ages twenty to forty-four). This essay examines the evolution of four waves of the 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, emphasizes the role of the U.S. Navy and sea travel as the initial transmitters of the virus in the United States, and focuses on California communities and military installations as a case study in the response to the crisis. Although the world war, limited medical science, and the unknown nature of the virus made it extremely difficult to fight the disease, the responses of national, state, and community leaders to the 1918–1920 influenza pandemic can provide useful lessons in 2020, as the onslaught of COVID-19 forces people worldwide to confront a terrible illness and death.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott (1896–1940)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Templeton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
World War I ◽  
United States Army ◽  
Extracurricular Activities ◽  
Short Story ◽  
The United States ◽  
Jazz Age ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
Story Writer

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American novelist, short-story writer, and cultural critic. Best-known for his 1925 novel The Great Gatsby, he coined the term "The Jazz Age" to refer to the riotous lifestyle of alcohol and excess that characterized the zeitgeist of the United States during the Roaring Twenties. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was named after a well-known distant relative, Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star Spangled Banner." He attended but did not graduate from Princeton University, where he was a member of the Princeton Triangle club—a theater group dedicated to musical-comedy—and where he wrote for the literary magazine as well as the campus paper. During his time at Princeton Fitzgerald began work on what would eventually become his first novel, This Side of Paradise (then titled The Romantic Egoist). The energy devoted to such extracurricular activities took its toll on Fitzgerald’s coursework, and he dropped out of the university in 1917 to enlist in the United States Army. Fitzgerald was stationed in Alabama at Camp Sheridan but did not see combat in World War I. He was in New York awaiting deployment when the armistice was signed in 1918.

Politics, Pushback, and Pandemics: Challenges to Public Health Orders in the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 416-422
Author(s):  
J. Alexander Navarro ◽  
Howard Markel
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Influenza Pandemic ◽  
The United States ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
Local Politicians ◽  
1918 Influenza

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, many state governors faced an increasing number of acts of defiance as well as political and legal challenges to their public health emergency orders. Less well studied are the similar acts of protest that occurred during the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic, when residents, business owners, clergy, and even local politicians grew increasingly restless by the ongoing public health measures, defied public health edicts, and agitated to have them rescinded. We explore several of the themes that emerged during the late fall of 1918 and conclude that, although the nation seems to be following the same path as it did in 1918, the motivations for pushback to the 2020 pandemic are decidedly more political than they were a century ago.

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