Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory InvestigationsUniversity of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine
History
Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory Investigations
University of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine
Influenza; Influenza Epidemic, 1918-1919
From September 28 until November 20, 1,392 cases of influenza occurred
among the enlisted men. How the infection reached the first two cases at
Hoboken is not known. The command here consisted of the Student Army
Training Corps of the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Institute
of Technology, Motor Mechanics of the University of Pittsburgh and the
Ordnance and Quartermasters’ Department on detached service. The
strength of this command was approximately 7,000. The first case
appeared on September 30 and the diagnosis was made on the following
day. Beginning October 13, all soldiers of this group were inoculated
with two 1 cc. doses of vaccine, obtained from the New York State Board
of Health. At the height of the epidemic there were about 840 soldier
patients in the several hospitals of the city at one time. Cubicles were
used in the hospitals, and in the barracks a floor space of 50 square
feet was allowed to each man. The men slept alternately head to foot,
with paper screens intervening, which were changed daily. In company
formation they were instructed to gargle their throats and clean their
teeth morning and night under the supervision of their officers. Strict
military quarantine was maintained throughout the entire camp, no
congregating was allowed, classes were suspended and only open-air
drills were permitted. For the entire command there were 220 cases of
pneumonia, with 99 deaths, an average mortality of 44 per cent. The
dishes were boiled in the hospitals, and sanitary dishwashers were used
in all mess halls. The kitchen help and personnel were inoculated with
influenza vaccine, with apparently good results. The Magee Hospital,
with 375 beds, was under strict military control. When this was full,
all others were treated in the civilian hospitals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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