1918 flu pandemic in Charlottesville-Albemarle

From Cvillepedia
Revision as of 20:29, 15 April 2020 by Jmh6d (talk | contribs) (Created page with "The '''1918 flu pandemic in Charlottesville-Albemarle''' was the outbreak of an unusually deadly influenza pandemic in the City of Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle Co...")
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The 1918 flu pandemic in Charlottesville-Albemarle was the outbreak of an unusually deadly influenza pandemic in the City of Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle County between 1918-1920 as a part of the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic. Also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, it infected 500 million people - about a quarter of the world's population at the time, lasting from January 1918 to December 1920. The fast-spreading strain of influenza didn't reach Albemarle-Charlottesville until the fall of 1918.

Influenza cases

In Albemarle-Charlottesville the influenza outbreak lasting from the end of September 1918 to December 1920 - an estimated 5,000 people caught the flu and at least 227 of them (4.3 percent) died, out of a total population of almost 36,000. The flu predominantly killed people between the ages of 20 to 40, i.e., those born between 1878 and 1898.

  • September 30 – Bruce Hackett (1877-1918), aged 41, a carpenter who lived near Scottsville, was the first person in Albemarle County to die of Spanish influenza.
  • October 9Opal Mae Bragg, aged 24, died at her father’s home on Douglas Avenue, after a 12-day illness of Spanish influenza. [1]
  • October 10 – Mr. John F. Wise (age 40) of Douglas Avenue was quite sick with influenza.[2]
  • October 10 – Rudy Violet Maddex, aged 14, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D. F. Maddex, of Hickory Hill, died this morning at one o’clock of pneumonia, after a brief illness.[3]
"How to Save Yourself and Others from Influenza," public notice printed in Daily Progress, dated October 10, 1918.

Context notes

Deadly disease were common prior to the beginning of the 20th Century, front page headings of war news, bond drives and daily report of war casualties in The Daily Progress pushed most flu stories into small articles.

Infectious diseases accounted for high morbidity and mortality worldwide. The average life expectancy at birth was 47 years (46 and 48 years for men and women respectively) even in the industrialized world. Infectious diseases such as smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, pneumonia, typhoid fever, plaque, tuberculosis, typhus, syphilis, etc. were rampant. The discovery of penicillin in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) marked the beginning of the antibiotic revolution.[4]

Images


Logo-small25.jpg This article is a stub. You can help cvillepedia by expanding it.


References

  1. Web. [1], Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises, October 10, 1918, retrieved March 13, 2020.
  2. Web. [2], Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises, October 10, 1918, retrieved March 13, 2020.
  3. Web. Young Girl Dies, Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises, October 10, 1918, retrieved March 13, 2020.
  4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5354621/

External Links