Spanish Flu Pandemic In 1918

The influenza pandemic of 1918, otherwise known as the “Spanish Flu’ was responsible for the deaths of 20 to 40 million individuals, resulting in a higher mortality than World War 1. More specifically, 675,000 Americans died, with the virus infecting close to 25% of the American population. As a result, studies have found the American lifespan during 1918-1919 had lowered 10 years due to the Spanish Flu.^1 The location of origin for the Spanish Flu is widely debated. However, three locations are suggested as its location of genesis, the first being France’s wartime trenches, the second being Shanxi Province, China, and the third being Kansas in the United States. France’s wartime trenches are characterized as being filthy and disease ridden

Log of Proportional Surviving Vs. Age. 4 different decades are graphed on a logarithmic scale to demonstrate survivorship. From Figure 1 and Table 1 it can be seen, 1900-09 had the greatest survivorship out of the 4 decades. Furthermore, 1930-39 had the smallest proportion of survivorship as no individual was recorded to live past there 70’s and few lived into the 70’s. Additionally, 1910-1919 had a greater survivorship than the decade 1920-1929 as individuals lived into their 80’s when born in 1910-1919 and none born in 1920-29 lived into their 80’s.

This was done using protocol provided by Department of Biology at Pennsylvania State University-University Park.^4 Moreover, data was provided by the Centre county Genealogical Society in allowing for determination of age at death and year of death. Ultimately, contributed to the creation of Figure 1, the survivorship curve. All curves from Figure 1 were all Type I curves, which is expected in the homo sapiens species. From the data in Table 1 and Figure 1the hypothesis was not supported. More specifically, it is correct in that reduced survivorship was seen when compared with the logarithmic curve of 1900-09. However, increased survivorship was seen when compared to 1930-39. Possible explanations for these trends are because the Spanish Flu was relatively short in time period its affect on survivorship would be relatively negligible when compered in a decade of time. Furthermore, contextual reasons leading to decreased survivorship is the crash of the stock market in October 1929 leading to the average American income to drop by 40%.^5 As a result, families lost their homes, their ability to maintain personal hygiene, and even to afford food. All of these factors, mostly likely lead to decreased survivorship due to malnourishment or enhanced virus/diseases