#x98;The#x9C; Influenza Pandemic of 1918 - 1919 a brief history with documents

The influenza pandemic of 1918-19 appeared suddenly at the end of the First World War and with explosive impact took the lives of at least 30 million people worldwide. Spreading rapidly across the globe, it defied all previous understandings of the disease, striking the youngest and healthiest individuals most acutely and confounding the doctors and governments who struggled to contain it. In this volume, Susan Kingsley Kent presents an overview of the disease, detailing its symptoms, tracking its spread, and offering insights into the medical community's understanding of and reaction to the pandemic. Documents from period newspapers, medical journals, and government publications, as well as letters, journal entries, memoirs, and novels written by survivors and medical staff, provide a variety of perspectives from six continents and illuminate the impact of the pandemic — from the lives of children orphaned by the flu to colonial rebellions for which the pandemic served as a major catalyst. Document headnotes, maps and illustrations, a chronology, questions for consideration, a selected bibliography, and an index enrich students' understanding. "Appearing in the midst of the First World War, the influenza virus of 1918-1919 blazed across the globe in a matter of months, leaving in its wake a death toll that would surpass that of the war itself. It appeared suddenly and with explosive impact, and defied all previous understandings of the disease: the illness struck quickly and without warning, felling people in their homes, at work, and in the streets, and unlike previous manifestations of the disease, which tended to take infants and the elderly, this strain primarily struck men and women in the prime of their lives. Especially virulent, it moved quickly through homes, military barracks, cities, and towns, first appearing in the American Midwest and quickly making its way to South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Doctors and other medical professionals were helpless to understand or treat it, and governments were unable to contain or manage it. By the time the virus died out in the fall of 1919, it had taken the lives of up to sixty million people. Like the war, the pandemic shook the foundations of individuals, families, and entire societies around the globe, and its impact would continue to be felt throughout the first half of the twentieth century."--Page iv Documents from period newspapers, medical journals, government publications, letters, journal entries, memoirs, and novels are collected to present a full picture of the influenza pandemic of 1918-19, which took the lives of at least 30 million people worldwide in Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919.