H1N1 flu virus has visited before -- with deadly results

[Guest guest]

COLUMN: An H1N1 flu virus has visited before -- with deadly results

By Mack | Kalamazoo Gazette January 16, 2010, 8:00AM

By eerie coincidence, the day after I started reading " Flu: The Story Of The

Great Influenza Pandemic, " my 17-year-old woke up with a 102-degree fever, body

aches and a sore throat.

It appeared to be a textbook case of H1N1, and my daughter spent the next four

days on a couch, surrounded by wadded-up tissues, half-filled glasses of orange

juice and the television remote. With the help of a doting boyfriend who served

as private-duty nurse and the healing powers of television reality shows, she

pulled through just fine.

Her relatively quick recuperation provided an interesting contrast to the

stories in " Flu, " which was published in 2001 by New York Times health reporter

Kolata. In reading the book, I discovered this year's flu has some of the

same characteristics as the virus in the 1918 flu pandemic — in both instances,

healthy young adults seem particularly susceptible; both involved a variation of

swine flu, and both viruses carry the designation of H1N1.

But nothing in history was quite like the 1918 pandemic.

In terms of numbers, it was the single deadliest natural disaster in human

history, with a global death toll estimated at between 20 and 100 million

people. My grandmother, in fact, lost a sibling in the 1918 flu pandemic.

Kalamazoo County was hit hard. One reason is that the virus swept through

military bases with a vengeance — all those young men in close quarters provided

the perfect environment for a virus with an affinity for young adults — and

Kalamazoo County had thousands of soldiers at then-Camp Custer in Augusta.

A 1976 Kalamazoo Gazette article reports that page after page after page in

ton Township's book of death certificates " tell the story of the 1918

scourge at the military encampment: `Occupation — soldier. Cause of death —

pneumonia.' "

In all, 841 soldiers died at Camp Custer during the 1918 pandemic, including 663

in October 1918 alone.

In the 1976 Gazette article, then-ton Township Supervisor Carson

recalled going into Camp Custer with his father during the outbreak and seeing

" bodies stacked up just like cord wood. "

Soldiers weren't the only ones affected. Borgess Medical Center treated almost

1,000 people for the flu during the 1918 illness, and 13 Sisters of St. ph

and nurses lost their own lives after they were infected by patients.

The disease was so devastating, the death toll so alarming, that on Oct. 17,

1918, the Kalamazoo City Commission voted to prohibit all public gatherings,

including churches services and movie showings. Schools were closed. Pool rooms

and dance halls were shut down. The ban lasted for two months.

The impact of the flu also is evident in various data on Michigan's state

government Web site. A graphic of annual deaths since 1900 shows a sharp spike

in 1918. Another chart on the state Web site shows that pneumonia-related deaths

increased 62 percent in 1918 compared to the year before.

While a half-million Americans died in the 1918 pandemic, the current pandemic

has killed between 7,000 and 13,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease

Control. That's no small matter for those families affected — and I happen to be

acquainted with someone who lost a 29-year-old daughter to complications of H1N1

in November. But the vast majority of patients in this case are like my

daughter: They get ill for a few days and recover.

For most people, this H1N1 is inconvenient. In 1918, it was deadly.

Mack's opinion column appears Saturdays in the Kalamazoo Gazette.

http://www.mlive.com/opinion/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/01/column_an_h1n1_flu_viru\

s_has_v.html