Influenza Pandemic Assignment 2022

Running head: INFLUENZA PANDEMIC 1
Spanish Influenza Pandemic
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INFLUENZA PANDEMIC 2
Introduction
One of the most terrible pandemics in world history is Spanish influenza. It happened
over a hundred years ago. It was first identified in 1918 in the final phases of the first world war.
The outbreak was from 1918 to 1919. The influenza type was A H1N1 subtype. It mainly
affected the lungs by causing hemorrhages and edema in the lungs. It also caused petechial
hemorrhages and bleeding from the ears. The diseases spread to even the most interior parts of
the planet like the pacific islands. The major people who were affected were the youths and
middle age. The old were also affected but not as much as the young adults were. This pandemic
caused a lot of controversies as it is normally expected to be severe in children and infants.
Between the two years of severity, it is estimated to have killed 5% of the world's population.
Over 25 million deaths were recorded within the first week.
The exact source of influenza is undetermined. It is though believed to have originated in
Europe and then spread to America and Asia. Within a few weeks, it had nearly spread to all the
parts of the world. It was called Spanish influenza because Spain was the most severely struck by
the pandemic (Oxford, 2013). It even killed Alfonso XIII, a Spanish king. The epidemic met
doctors unaware of its cause and how to treat it. According to Kobasa et al., (2014), there wasn't
even a small idea of how to control it, and this made it more severe. Furthermore, the world war
had rubbished many doctors, physicians, nurses, and other health workers. There were very few
personnel to handle the disease.
Schools, social halls, and a few homesteads were converted to expedient hospitals to
admit patients infected with the flue. The patients were admitted just to be given hope as the
pandemic was out of doctors' control. Furthermore, they did not have medications and vaccines

INFLUENZA PANDEMIC 3
to offer. Public policy was passed that required all public places to be shut down. All schools,
religious institutions, clubs, and areas of the social gathering were closed. Curfew was set to
ensure people stay indoors. They were also advised to avoid shaking hands. There was also a
regulation known as the sanitary code that was passed. According to Keith-Lucas (2015), the
sanitary code banned people from spitting in public places and roads. Libraries were also given
an order to stop lending books.
Many researchers and scientist endeavored to learn about the virus that caused the
pandemic. The need to create vaccine and medication for the disease gave scientists sleepless
nights. In Alaska, there is a small village called Brevig Mission that is along their ocean shores.
The village contains epidemiological evidence of the deadly pandemic. The village was small
and contained estimably 400 people. Mamelund (2016) noted that, Of the population in Brevig,
more than 80 adults died of the disease. The exact cause of the disease in the village is untold,
but there are many myths on how it was brought into the village.
Later on, the whole community was washed away by Spanish influenza. The government
of Alaska dug a mass grave. The grave was frozen by permafrost and a white cross placed on top
as a memory of a village erased from existence. In 1951 Johan Hultin was a Ph.D. student in the
University of Iowa studying Microbiology. He was so determined to find the 1918 influenza
virus. He wanted to find answers to why the virus was so deadly. He believed that he would find
traces of the virus in the grave frozen with permafrost. With permission from village elders to
excavate the bodies of the buried villagers, he set up an expedition to Brevig mission.
With the help of his university colleagues, they successfully excavated the grave. They
took four lung samples from different bodies of different ages that they estimated. He then flew