90 years after Great Flu Pandemic, CDC issues new warnings

[Guest guest]

90 years after Great Flu Pandemic, CDC issues book and new warnings

POSTED August 21, 4:01 PM

S. Guthrie - Seattle Health Examiner

Imagine a contagious disease killing thousands by the day in this

country that cannot be cured, controlled or contained? And 50 million

becoming fatally ill worldwide? No, not AIDS.

Influenza. Flu, the nasty bout of muscle aches, cough and fever that

seasonally keeps thousands in bed and annually sends more than 200,000

Americans to the hospital.

In 1918, it spread around the world, killed more people than World War

I and became known as " one the largest scourges ever on human kind. "

And it became the basis for preparing for today's worst-case scenarios.

On the 90th anniversary of the killer, the nation's public health

guardians -- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- today

released on-line " Pandemic Influenza Storybook. "

It's filled with compelling and informative personal accounts of how

the 1918 pandemic, also known as the Spanish Flu, swept across the

country and forever left its mark on family after family.

Grandchildren never knowing their grandparents, Siblings separated

forever because one or both of their parents died. An entire family of

eight buried side by side. Doctors and other health-care workers die

answering their duty call. Surviving relatives inspired to become

doctors, researchers, epidemiologists fueled by " never-again "

determination.

There's a good reason the CDC is telling this rather dated story in

new up-close-and-personal accounts in non-medicalese terms and

explanations. It wants you to Get Prepared.

Remember the fears, concerns and predictions of the avian flu a few

years back? How experts predicted it was a matter of not " if " but when

it would leap around the globe? The threat is still around. And every

public health department -- from the federally-funded CDC that is

based in Atlanta because of malaria malaise of the 1940s-- to King

County that has avian flu alerts in 12 languages -- knows it.

This particular deadly influenza strain, known as H5N1, has been found

in birds throughout Asia, Europe, the Near East and Africa. First

detected more than ten years ago in Hong Kong when farmers and others

became sick, sporadic outbreaks continue to occur among humans and

wild and domestic birds in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Azerbaijan

and other countries. To date, 243 have died.

For now, this strain continues to mostly sicken people who have direct

contact with infected poultry, But scientists fear it still has the

potential to mutate and " jump " to person-to-person transmission.

" Complacency is enemy number one when it comes to preparing for

another influenza pandemic, " said CDC Director Dr. Gerberding.

" These stories, told so eloquently by survivors, family members, and

friends from past pandemics, serve as a sobering reminder of the

devastating impact that influenza can have and reading them is a must

for anyone involved in public health preparedness. "

Public health officials have many emergency and quarantine plans in

place to quell the hysteria, confusion and transmission rate that

occurred in 1918.

In October of that year, Washington state officials closed school ---

many didn't open for months -- and banned public gatherings, including

church. This prompted complaints from ministers, leading the

then-mayor to say, " Religion which won't keep for two weeks, is not

worth having. "

Seattle's old City Hall and University of Washington dormitories

became emergency hospitals. By October 29, citizens in Seattle were

told they must wear masks in public; the state mandated similar

protection the next day. Around the country, people tried many elixirs

to stay alive -- herbs, goats milk, moonshine -- stories also

recounted in the CDC narrative.

One reason for the 1918 pandemic's astounding toll deadly: No

antibiotics existed to treat the bacterial pneumonia that influenza

commonly triggers. Most victims succumbed to bacterial pneumonia

following influenza virus infection, a report released Wednesday from

the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases concluded.

When subsequent flu epidemics erupted in 1957 and 1967, far fewer

people died. The CDC is also collecting stories about these later

outbreaks.

Seattle and King County has developed a 12-page comic book on pandemic

flu. Targeting readers of all ages, this story tells the tale of a

family's experience of the 1918 influenza pandemic. It also explains

the threat of pandemic flu today, illustrates what to expect during a

pandemic (such as school closures), and offers tips to help households

prepare. View comic book in 12 languages.

Here's a few excerpts from the " storytellers " of the CDC's 1918

Pandemic Influenza Storybook:

Jim Helmkamp, Washington: My father, M. Helmkamp was born on

December 4, 1918 in Spokane Washington. Two weeks later his mother

died from the flu. As a result of her death, my grief-stricken

grandfather determined that he could not raise my Dad and his older

sister. The children were sent to live with relatives in Illinois

where they were raised separately, never to effectively live as

brother and sister in the same household. Subsequently, as my Dad was

raising his four children, we never got to know our grandfather. I saw

him only twice before he died in 1967.

Daisy Mildred Sykes, Virginia: In 1918, my father was 15 years old

and my mother was 10 years old during the pandemic. They lived in

Finney Hollow in County, Virginia. They told me that at that

time, people would make home remedies to help those who had fallen ill

with the pandemic flu. One remedy was a cough syrup made from boiled

and strained cherry tree bark that was sweetened and may have had a

little white lightening (moonshine) added in. The other was a liniment

ointment, warmed and applied to the chest , which was made of hog

lard, kerosene, camphor and perhaps other ingredients.

Short Bull, North and South Dakota: This is the story of the

1918 flu pandemic as told by my 97-year-old grandmother, Sadie Afraid

of His Horses–Janis. Sadie & #8242;s father, Afraid of His Horses, is

the son of Young Man Afraid of His Horses*; both men were influential

Sioux leaders.

In September 1918, Sadie & #8242;s grandmother, Poor Elk– Red Cloud

(wife of Jack Red Cloud) went with her family to Alliance, Nebraska to

pick potatoes. The journey from Pine Ridge, South Dakota to Alliance

was a five-day journey by wagon. " Spud Pickin " was an economic venture

for the Indians on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation; it was a way to

earn money and to buy food for the winter....The Red Cloud family had

just finished picking potatoes at the end of October 1918 when they

were told of " a real bad sickness that was coming and that they should

start for home. " They had just started to break camp when the

middle-aged members of the family started to get sick with the flu.

The family decided to stay encamped at Alliance until they got well

enough to travel back home to Pine Ridge.

Dr. Kathleen Toomey, Pennsylvania: Although my father's dad died

before he was born, the death left a lasting impression him. My father

was born in September 1919. Earlier that year, his father,

also named , died quickly after contracting influenza

relatively late in the pandemic and in fact died several months before

my father was born. Subsequently, my father was raised by his

grandmother, since his mother soon remarried and had three additional

children with her new husband. The death of his father and the

separation from his mother had a life-long impact on my father. He

told me this story when I was a child and it contributed greatly to my

decision as an adult to enter the field of public health. (Toomey has

held many key positions at the CDC and served as head of Georgia's

Division of Public Health.)

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