by ©2018 Sarah Becker Pandemic Spanish Flu of 1918 Hospital reports of nursing shortages are nothing new. Neither is flu season. Influenza is a communicable, highly contagious, disease transmitted through droplet infection–or—by touching articles contaminated with infected nasaldischarge. Contaminated hands, hand railings, enclosed air systems, populated school buses and military barracks are all breeding grounds. In early 1918 “a mysterious malady” circulated through Spain “in the form and of the character of the grippe.” It quickly spread to Switzerland, then to France, England and Norway. World War I was ongoing and “in early August the disease, carried from Europe in ocean liners and troop transports,” arrived in the United States. The Spanish flu was pandemic. On October 5, 1918 Dr. W.L. Wood, of the United States Public Health Service, appealed “to women, regardless of color, to aid in nursing persons afflicted with Spanish influenza.” The USPHS further ordered “that from now on all windows on the cars of the Washington-Virginia Railway Company must be kept open.” Persons who refused were “subject to arrest and the imposition of a fine.” Approximately 50 million of the world’s population died of the pandemic Spanish flu, perhaps three times the number of 1918 war deaths. “Provisional totals of the United States, including the deaths of soldiers, sailors and marines, indicate about 500,000 deaths were due to the epidemic at the end of 1918, extending into the early part of 1919,” The Washington Post wrote. The loss of life in 1919 was estimated at about 45,000. “In connection with statistics collected from other countries, the figures for the [United States] emphasize the supreme importance of discovering, first, the cause of the influenza; second, a means of prevention or control of its spread; third, a means of cure,” The Washington Post stated in 1920. …