Influenza : $b An epidemiologic studyVaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
History
Influenza : $b An epidemiologic study
Vaughan, Warren T. (Warren Taylor)
Influenza
The peak of daily incidence in Boston occurred around the first of
October. In the week ending October 5th a total of 1,214 deaths from
influenza and pneumonia was reported, while by the third week of October
this total had fallen to less than 600, and for the week ending November
9th was down to 47. Around November 15th the number of cases rather
suddenly increased and this recurrent wave lasted for about ten days. By
the 25th the rate was back to what it had been around the first of the
same month. On or about December 1st the incidence again rose and
continued increasing daily, to reach its peak in a severe recrudescence
around December 31st.
There are conflicting reports concerning the date of first appearance of
the epidemic at Camp Devens, Massachusetts. Woodward says that a sudden
and very significant increase was reported during the third week in
August in the number of cases of pneumonia occurring in the army
cantonment at Camp Devens, seeming to justify the statement that an
influenza epidemic may have started among the soldiers there even before
it appeared in the naval forces. Soper, on the other hand, as well as
Howard and Love in their official report, place the date of the first
case at Devens as September 7th. Soper remarks: “The Devens epidemic is
supposed to have commenced on September 7, 1918, in D Company, 42d
Infantry. On that date a case of supposed meningitis was sent to the
hospital from this company; on the following day twelve cases were sent
for observation. These proved to be influenza. By the 16th thirty-seven
cases had gone from the same company.” Howard and Love state, “The first
authentic cases of virulent influenza of the great autumn pandemic among
troops in the United States appeared on September 7, 1918, at Camp
Devens, Mass.” These statements by Howard and Love do not eliminate the
possibility of earlier and less virulent unrecognized cases. Wooley, who
was camp epidemiologist, reports that influenza began at Camp Devens on
the 8th of September, 1918. It reached its acme on the 16th, 17th and
18th of the month and then rapidly declined, almost completely vanishing
about the middle of November. He makes no observation as to whether a
mild form of the disease was or was not present in the camp in March and
April preceding.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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