Within 24 hours, this virulent infection had spread throughout the community and beyond. Terror and panic spread just as quickly.
Doctors warned people to keep to their homes, and families were decimated – some losing five or six members. It became difficult for infected households to obtain the necessities as they were prohibited from leaving and others were too fearful to go for them. There were stories of the dying whose screams could be heard far and wide. There were also stories of heroism when compassion overcame fear.
Most of the deceased were buried quickly and without benefit of coffins or ceremonies. In some cases, it was necessary to prepare mass graves to accommodate the proliferating number of deaths. Then almost a month later, as abruptly as it had come, it was gone leaving behind a vivid memory of terror and death.
Ironically and mysteriously, the contagion struck, not the very old, the very young, nor the weak – in other words the more fragile and vulnerable, as one might expect – but rather the young and strong, those in the prime of life, those aged between 20 and 40. This occurred immediately after World War I when the world had lost so many young men and women. It could hardly afford more loss from a youthful generation, but unfortunately, such was the case.
The Spanish Influenza was so named after an airborne virus that took an extraordinary number of Spaniards’ lives in May of 1918. It would seem the killer infection was born in Canton, China, making its way to Japan and eventually into Europe. Here it came into contact with soldiers who were returning to their countries of origin in North America, South Australia, and Asia.
Also referred to as La Grippe, it took 25 million in just one year, and estimates of fatalities worldwide range to 50 million. In Canada 50,000 perished and whole communities in Newfoundland and Labrador were exterminated. In the U.S. all states were contaminated within one week. Twenty-eight per cent of Americans expired, 550,000 people, 10 times as many casualties as in all of the Great War. In Philadelphia alone, 4,600 were taken in merely seven days. In India 12,500,000 lost their lives.
The Bubonic Plague paled in comparison to this flu. In fact, it is believed that fully half of all deaths during the war occurred by virtue of the Spanish Flu. Some have asserted that even the peace negotiations were affected when President Wilson of the United States fell ill. The pandemic persisted through 1918, 1919, and into the 1920s.
In that more hospitals were built, public health nursing courses were established at Dalhousie University, and the 1919 Department of Health Act was passed, some positives can be attributed to the Spanish Influenza.
It does seem like a steep price to pay for modest and belated measures.