How did the Spanish Flu Enter the United States?
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By Rachel Stockton rachels at foodconsumer dot org
On September 11, Washington D.C., realizing it was under siege, made a public announcement. The year however, was 1918, not 2001, and the enemy holding Americans hostage was not made up of small cells of terrorists. This nemesis consisted of cells infected with the Spanish flu.
The Spanish flu lives in infamy as the "greatest holocaust in medical history;" one of the most terrorizing pandemics that has ever stricken the planet. By some estimates, the virus claimed more lives than did the "black death."
What made this particular flu virus so unique, so deadly? And what made it travel at lightning speed across the entire globe within a matter of months? There were several "x" factors in place at the time of the outbreak; one of those anomalies was World War I. While the War did not cause the virus, it certainly contributed to its rapacious spread.
The day after Washington announced that the dreaded Spanish flu had arrived, 13 million men signed up to join the armed services.
Geographically, no one knows the location of the first outbreaks; but the virus's first introduction onto American soil came in March of 1918 on the base of Fort Riley, KS. Two weeks later, another case was reported in Queens, New York.
The virus had medical experts perplexed; the vast majority of those killed by the flu were young, able bodied adults, rather than immune compromised babies and senior citizens. Suddenly, the old rules didn't seem to apply.
Presentation
The deadly virus wreaked havoc very quickly; recent research has revealed that it attacked tissue in the lungs that normally isn't affected by the flu. Within mere hours of being stricken, sufferers were too weak to walk; many died within the first 24 hours. Those who weren't so lucky either drowned in their own body fluids, or bled to death while losing the lining of their intestines
.
Why Kansas?
The general consensus through the years has been that the virus sprang up in Kansas because Fort Riley was the base that raised poultry and swine for American soldiers, who brought the disease back with them after fighting in the war. The virus, experts thought for several years, easily transferred back and forth from the swine to humans. However, it was later discovered that the swine were irrelevant; the soldiers returned from Europe with a strain that jumped from human to human with surreal rapidity.
Soldiers brought the illness to American soil, and ironically, they could be responsible for rendering it powerless, should it attack us in the future. By studying the lung tissue of two, frozen World War I soldiers felled by the illness, researchers have begun to make progress in understanding the enigmas of the Spanish flu. Since 1999, scientists have worked tirelessly to "reconstruct" the virus responsible for the Spanish flu; among other things, they hope to substitute some parts of the viral chain with a weaker virus in order to render it non-lethal.
On September 11, Washington D.C., realizing it was under siege, made a public announcement. The year however, was 1918, not 2001, and the enemy holding Americans hostage was not made up of small cells of terrorists. This nemesis consisted of cells infected with the Spanish flu.
The Spanish flu lives in infamy as the "greatest holocaust in medical history;" one of the most terrorizing pandemics that has ever stricken the planet. By some estimates, the virus claimed more lives than did the "black death."
What made this particular flu virus so unique, so deadly? And what made it travel at lightning speed across the entire globe within a matter of months? There were several "x" factors in place at the time of the outbreak; one of those anomalies was World War I. While the War did not cause the virus, it certainly contributed to its rapacious spread.
The day after Washington announced that the dreaded Spanish flu had arrived, 13 million men signed up to join the armed services.
Geographically, no one knows the location of the first outbreaks; but the virus's first introduction onto American soil came in March of 1918 on the base of Fort Riley, KS. Two weeks later, another case was reported in Queens, New York.
The virus had medical experts perplexed; the vast majority of those killed by the flu were young, able bodied adults, rather than immune compromised babies and senior citizens. Suddenly, the old rules didn't seem to apply.
Presentation
The deadly virus wreaked havoc very quickly; recent research has revealed that it attacked tissue in the lungs that normally isn't affected by the flu. Within mere hours of being stricken, sufferers were too weak to walk; many died within the first 24 hours. Those who weren't so lucky either drowned in their own body fluids, or bled to death while losing the lining of their intestines
.
Why Kansas?
The general consensus through the years has been that the virus sprang up in Kansas because Fort Riley was the base that raised poultry and swine for American soldiers, who brought the disease back with them after fighting in the war. The virus, experts thought for several years, easily transferred back and forth from the swine to humans. However, it was later discovered that the swine were irrelevant; the soldiers returned from Europe with a strain that jumped from human to human with surreal rapidity.
Soldiers brought the illness to American soil, and ironically, they could be responsible for rendering it powerless, should it attack us in the future. By studying the lung tissue of two, frozen World War I soldiers felled by the illness, researchers have begun to make progress in understanding the enigmas of the Spanish flu. Since 1999, scientists have worked tirelessly to "reconstruct" the virus responsible for the Spanish flu; among other things, they hope to substitute some parts of the viral chain with a weaker virus in order to render it non-lethal.
.
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