When was the flu epidemic in the united states

The influenza epidemic that swept the world in killed an estimated 50 million people. One fifth of the world's population was attacked by this deadly virus. Within months, it had killed more people than any other illness in recorded history. The plague emerged in two phases. In late spring of , the first phase, known as the "three-day fever," appeared without warning.

Few deaths were reported. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about , occurring in the United States.

Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, years old, and 65 years and older. The high mortality in healthy people, including those in the year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic. Reported cases of Spanish flu dropped off over the summer of , and there was hope at the beginning of August that the virus had run its course.

In retrospect, it was only the calm before the storm. Somewhere in Europe, a mutated strain of the Spanish flu virus had emerged that had the power to kill a perfectly healthy young man or woman within 24 hours of showing the first signs of infection. In late August , military ships departed the English port city of Plymouth carrying troops unknowingly infected with this new, far deadlier strain of Spanish flu.

As these ships arrived in cities like Brest in France, Boston in the United States and Freetown in west Africa, the second wave of the global pandemic began. From September through November of , the death rate from the Spanish flu skyrocketed. In the United States alone, , Americans died from the Spanish flu in just the month of October. Not only was it shocking that healthy young men and women were dying by the millions worldwide, but it was also how they were dying.

Struck with blistering fevers, nasal hemorrhaging and pneumonia, the patients would drown in their own fluid-filled lungs. But some strains of the flu , particularly the H1N1 strain responsible for the Spanish flu outbreak, can trigger a dangerous immune overreaction in healthy individuals.

In those cases, the body is overloaded with cytokines leading to severe inflammation and the fatal buildup of fluid in the lungs. British military doctors conducting autopsies on soldiers killed by this second wave of the Spanish flu described the heavy damage to the lungs as akin to the effects of chemical warfare.

Army camp in Kansas in March By the late summer and early fall, a second, deadlier wave of the flu emerged and caused particular devastation at Camp Devens in Massachusetts. About a third of the 15, people at the camp became infected, and died. Victor Vaughan was one of the doctors who witnessed this outbreak.

Before , Vaughan and many other doctors were extremely optimistic about their ability to combat disease. Although infectious diseases still accounted for a larger percentage of deaths in the United States than they do today, advances in medicine and sanitation had made doctors and scientists confident that they could one day largely eliminate the threat of these diseases.

The flu pandemic changed all that.