Appalling so few know about 1918 flu pandemic!! 2 phys therapists, 1 RN had never heard of it

[bobbieinok]

RN knew of budget cuts to CDC, but that might have been just humoring patient.

[dewsgirl]

1. Considering how many people have watched Twilight

and read the books, quite a few should have heard of it. (It's how the main character, Edward originally died) I guess people could have assumed it was just fiction) The book goes into a bit more detail.
I learned about it in the 6th grade. SMDH

[demigoddess]

2. one of the reasons that flu pandemic was so bad is because many people were

going back and forth over the Atlantic in ships. In those days it took longer to go across and they were many soldiers and caught the flu from being enclosed in a ship with someone who had it. Also because that flu attacked the young people age group.

[Laffy Kat]

7. The war. All those soldiers in close quarters with poor nutrition. nt

[Archae]

11. Also many families had rudimentary (at best) medical help.

A popular (but ineffective) "cure" for the flu was hanging a small bag of mustard seed around someone's neck.

Patent medicines were still popular also.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. There were at least two bestselling books and (how many?) TV documentaries on that subject.

Why they were so far in advance of the centenary, I'm not sure. (Oh, they followed the H1N1 outbreak)

I guess if you only watch network entertainment you don't hear about these things.

[raccoon]

4. I guess they don't watch enough TV. nt

[marybourg]

5. I guess they never watched

BBC costume dramas on PBS. Original " Upstairs Downstairs ", "Family at War", etc.

[Tanuki]

8. Even Downton Abbey!

[yellerpup]

6. The Flu strain in the pandemic of 1918

was unusual in that the young and the strong and healthy were the ones attacked by it. Babies, old folks and people with lousy immune systems remained uninfected.

[PADemD]

9. My elderly GG Grandparents died in that pandemic.

And my G Grandmother took care of them.

[yellerpup]

13. What a wonderful thing to know

about your family. I hope you're still close-knit.

[OnDoutside]

10. Commonly known as Spanish flu.

[Historic NY]

12. I know, I've tried explaining how people were usually dead in 3 days.....

in the WWI troops it ran so quickly that it ended. More people from rural area died vs those from the big cities, due to exposures to various other infections. City folks tended to weather the illness. Same for soldiers in trenches. Those soldiers in the service longer tended to get through the illness due to the exposures. Of course the modern use of aspirin didn't help those sick soldiers. The Surgeon General prescribed 'high doses', which in the end caused the patients to drown in their own fluids. Aspirin is an immune suppressant, the patients couldn't fight the illness off. Old unused vaccine's were another problem for the soldiers, some actually causing the disease rather than preventing it. The received a virtual cocktail of stuff that was no longer good. The blame was all placed on the Spanish Flu, rather than the concoction's of vaccine soup. How else would the explain the illness, it must have come from foreign soil. The first cases showed up in a Army Camp in Ft. Riley Kansas, far from Spanish flu contact. More soldiers died needlessly from the flu than on the battlefield.

[Ilsa]

14. I know it is mentioned in history books

because so many died from it.

But I think there should be a class on history of diseases, medicines, treatments, and devices. It might be useful on a basic level to understand how certain practices evolved.

[demigoddess]

21. recently I read that doctors still bled patients as a treatment well into

the 20TH CENTURY. Does that blow your mind?

[Laxman]

15. My Grandfather's Parents....

both died in the Spanish Flu pandemic. He and his brother were sent to live with an uncle they had never met who was in the merchant marines and worked on sailing ships. When they got to be 14 they were pulled out of school and sent to work. Their family land in Pennsylvania had been given to another relative and they never saw a dime from it. Their story was apparently not an anomaly at the time. It was like a crazy Dickens story.

[xmas74]

20. My grandfather was put in an orphanage

Pulled out at age twelve and sent to be a farm hand. He never made it past the sixth grade, according to his military records.

[bobbieinok]

16. It became real to me reading the gravestones in small rural IA churchyards. So many children d 1918!

[womanofthehills]

18. I still remember one old gravestone from 1918 in my home town

"three days she lain, while physicians tried in vain"

[lunasun]

17. my older family used to talk about this they have been in Chicago a long time

at some point the city could not keep up with bodies that needed to be taken away so the city also for some dead dropped off caskets first and a few of the dead were wrapped in shroud
They talked about the dead in the front of their streets waiting to be picked up . These old relatives would have been kids to teens at the time and i think mny cities were hit hard
and of course it left a big memory.
Imagine being surrounded by death and knowing it can creep!

should i continue with the tales to my kids?? I thi nk I will 1918 !00 yrs

[xmas74]

19. My great grandmother was

One of the victims, or so the story goes.