Influenza : $b An epidemiologic studyVaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
History
Influenza : $b An epidemiologic study
Vaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
Influenza
The rapid spread from Europe to distant India may be accounted for with
the same mechanism as that by which the disease was spread from America
to France and from France to England, viz. by army transports. The
occurrence of the disease in Porto Rico appears to have been definitely
connected with the arrival of a ship from Spain. A very short notice in
the Public Health Reports tells us that influenza was reported present
at Santos, Brazil, June 16, 1918. We are not informed as to how it
reached that place.
We have discovered no mention of influenza in China in June. It was
reported present in Chungking, China, July 27th. and at that time
one-half of the population was stated to be affected. Dengue was
reported prevalent at Chefoo, China, during the two weeks ended June 15,
1918, and a report from Shanghai of the same date describes the
prevalence of a disease resembling dengue and affecting about 50 per
cent. of the population. The disease in these two latter places may have
been influenza.
The epidemic made its appearance in Korea in September, 1918. Schofield
and Cynn, who report the epidemic, believe that the infection came from
Europe via Siberia. The disease spread from North to South along the
line of the Southern Manchurian Railway.
In August the disease was re-introduced into the United States and by
the end of that month it had acquired a foothold in Boston and vicinity
and rapidly spread to other parts of the country. The pandemic had
crossed the Atlantic in both directions in six months’ time.
In 1918 as in 1889 there are excellent descriptions of the conveyance of
the disease by vessels. The transfer from Spain to Porto Rico has been
mentioned. Escomel says that the outbreak in Rio de Janeiro was ascribed
to infection from a steamship from Spain, the same boat which later
visited Buenos Ayres and started the epidemic in the latter city.
According to a report to the Journal of the American Medical Association
from Mexico the epidemic invaded that country from the North at Laredo
and followed the course from North to South. From a similar source the
same Journal reports that the influenza spread from Buenos Ayres as a
primary focus to Paraguay and there acquired greater virulence.
Hernando reports from the Philippine Islands that influenza was
estimated to have attacked forty per cent. of the total population of
7,000,000 the mortality being about 2.5 per cent. of those attacked. The
epidemic really began in June, although it did not assume great severity
until October. The group of ages that suffered most were those between
ten and twenty-nine years. The disease did not seem to be imported,
since cases were returned before any ships arrived from infected
countries, although after the importation of cases it assumed a more
severe form. The June epidemic seemed to confer a certain degree of
immunity during the second outbreak of the disease in October.
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