Just before breakfast on the morning of March 4, U.S. Army Private Albert Gitchell presented to hospital in Fort Riley, Kansas, complaining of cold symptoms, sore throat, fever, and sore throat. head. Soon after, more than 100 of his fellow soldiers reported similar symptoms, marking what are believed to be the first cases of the historic 1918 flu pandemic, later known as the Spanish flu. The flu would eventually kill 675,000 Americans and an estimated 20 to 50 million people worldwide, proving to be a far deadlier force than even World War I.
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The initial outbreak of the disease, reported at Fort Riley in March, was followed by similar outbreaks in military camps and prisons in various parts of the country. The disease quickly traveled to Europe with American soldiers heading to aid the Allies on France’s battlefields. (In March 1918 alone, 84,000 American troops crossed the Atlantic; another 118,000 followed them the following month.) Upon arriving on a second continent, the flu showed no sign of abating: 31,000 cases were reported in June in Britain. The disease was eventually dubbed the Spanish Flu because people mistakenly believed Spain to be the epicenter of the pandemic.
The flu showed no mercy to the fighters on either side of the trenches. Over the summer, the first wave of the epidemic struck German forces on the Western Front, where they were leading a final unrestrained offensive that would determine the outcome of the war. This had a significant effect on the already weakened morale of the troops – as German Army Commander Crown Prince Rupprecht wrote on August 3: Poor provisions, heavy casualties and the worsening flu deeply affected depressed the morale of the men of the III Infantry Division. During this time, the flu was rapidly spreading beyond the borders of Western Europe, due to its unusually high rate of virulence and the massive transport of men on land and on ships due to the effort of war. By the end of the summer, numerous cases had been reported in Russia, North Africa and India; China, Japan, the Philippines and even New Zealand are also said to be victims.
READ MORE: How America Fought to Bury the Dead During the 1918 Flu Pandemic
The Great War ended on November 11, but the flu continued to wreak havoc around the world, again setting the United States on fire in an even more vicious wave with the return of soldiers from the war and ultimately infecting approximately 28% of the country’s population before finally running out. outside. In its December 28, 1918 issue, the American Medical Association recognized the end of a momentous conflict and called for acceptance of a new challenge: the fight against infectious disease.
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