Influenza

by Warren T. Vaughan

A most important observation made by MacNeal is that French physicians practicing among the civilian population were perfectly familiar with the disease when it appeared at Chaumont in April, 1918, that they designated it as La Grippe, and stated that it had been extensively prevalent in the civilian population of Chaumont from March 15th to May 15th, 1918. These observations of influenza occurring in France at almost the same date as the first outbreaks in the United States is a matter of great interest. It has also been stated by McNalty and by Carnwath, who quotes Kabeshima and Lee, that the disease was prevalent in epidemic form in China and Japan in March, 1918. We have here three foci from which the disease may have primarily originated. There are two possibilities; first, that it originated in all three foci (and perhaps others), and spread to all parts of the world from each; second, that the virus, distributed throughout the world, acquired high virulence in all three localities, causing small epidemic outbreaks, but that the virus from only one of these places finally became so exalted as to cause the pandemic. Did the pandemic disease originate simultaneously in France, in China and in the United States? One fact seems certain, that the influenza which attacked our troops in Europe was influenza imported from the United States. We have seen that it first appeared in the American Expeditionary forces at the base ports. Alberto Lutraria, Health Commissioner of Italy, has reported that the disease was brought to that country from America. A point of significance is the fact that during March and April there was an unusually large troop movement from the United States to the American Expeditionary Forces.

MacNeal says: “The suggestion that the epidemic was introduced from America is supported by the fact that it appeared at a time when large numbers of Americans were arriving in Europe, which is indeed an outstanding feature correlated in time with the onset of the epidemic.”

According to the report of the Influenza Committee, the disease was first seen in epidemic form in April and May in the British Armies in France, but that was not the first time that Pfeiffer’s bacillus had appeared within the armies. It had frequently been found in cases of bronchopneumonia, especially during the winter of 1916–17. Carnwath remarks that it is doubtful whether much importance from an epidemiologic point of view attaches to these sporadic findings of the influenza bacillus. In an outbreak of measles and rubella—complicated by purulent bronchitis—which attacked men belonging to the draft of troops from New Zealand between January 1st and March 8th, 1918, the bacillus influenzae was present in twenty-four of the forty sputa examined, and was grown in culture in twenty-one cases. Sellards made somewhat similar observations on measles patients at Camp Devens.

Concerning the French population, Chauffard, Messary and Netter, all remark that the first cases in France developed in April with possibly some cases before that time, and that there were undoubtedly cases in the German Army in April.

We see then that by April the disease has been transferred to France and is prevalent in the various armies. It is natural to assume that the battle front would present no great obstacle to the spread of the disease into the German Army. Gins remarks that the disease was present on the German West front among the troops as early as April, 1918, and that it spread from there more rapidly to the South than to the North.

During the month of May we observe the spread of the disease to Great Britain, where Carnwath, who has made an exhaustive study of the spread in Great Britain, believes that it was imported by the troops from France. Its first recorded appearance in Glasgow was in May. Dunlop, in reporting the successive epidemics in Scotland, observed that in addition to the three well marked epidemics there was a mild one recognizable in Glasgow in May, and that in that city the death rate rose from 14.1 to 20.1, and the weekly number of deaths from pneumonia and bronchitis from 36 to 107.

In England the disease first attracted attention in June, appearing first in the coast towns, chiefly at the beginning among the military and naval forces. The civilian population was severely affected only later. The ports which were earlier attacked were Portsmouth, Southampton and Liverpool. Inland towns suffered more severely later.

In the same month that the disease broke out in Scotland it appeared in Spain. The Inspector General of Health in that country reported that an epidemic of the disease began at Madrid in the last half of May, 1918, at a period when there was an unusually large gathering of people in the city. Within a short time it had spread rapidly through all the provinces. The increase in death rate became marked on the 27th of May and reached its peak on the 31st, at which time the rate was twice that of the average annual death rate for that period of the year. During the following week there was some oscillation around the peak and then the curve fell away. The epidemic was particularly severe at Madrid, Badajoz, and Seville. It was mild at Barcelona.

MacNeal remarks: “In Spain the disease appeared in epidemic form about the middle of May and this outbreak received great publicity, sufficient to lead to the popular appellation of Spanish influenza. The very rapid and extensive spread of the disease in Spain would indicate that it had been introduced from without rather than transformed from the endemic state in that country. This also appears to accord with the view of those who have studied the epidemic in Spain.”

Filtzos reports that influenza first appeared in Greece toward the end of May, 1918. The symptoms were slight and the people who were attacked suffered for three or four days with fever, accompanied by nervous symptoms. It was called at the time “Spanish Fever”. Beginning with September the epidemic became worse and caused a considerable rise in mortality. Complications with bronchopneumonia appeared. The decrease in incidence began toward the middle of December, 1918.