Current virus circumstances mirror local 1918 flu outbreak

While the circumstances of the COVID-19 are unprecedented in our lifetime, they are eerily similar – at least locally -- to the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918.

Certainly no one – unless they would be more than 100 years old -- was around to share the details of that incident. However, we have the work of longtime local newsman David Barr to fall back on. Barr not only wrote about it, but lived through it as a school boy in 1918.

Writing about the flu outbreak of 1918, likely on its 50th anniversary, Barr noted that “Putnam County was hard hit, along with all other Indiana areas.”

In fact, Putnam Health Officer Dr. Jerome King, acting on a directive from the State Board of Health, ordered all schools, churches and “places of amusement” closed until further notice.

Greencastle Mayor Rupert Bartley, backed by School Superintendent Dodson and local physician Dr. Walter M. McGaughey, subsequently issued an order closing all city schools, churches, the Opera House, movie theaters and all other places of public gathering.

Sound familiar?

The flu of 1918, Barr noted in his column, had already taken its toll with hundreds in the city and county stricken and a number of deaths reported. A total of 6,000 persons in Indiana died before the epidemic ran its course.

Another state directive, Barr wrote, required quarantine placards being placed on the homes of flu victims as a warning to protect others from entering the house, the Herald-Democrat newspaper reported.

After three weeks, local schools were reopened. Obviously, we’re not so lucky this year with schools closed for the duration of the school year. While the schools were shut down in 1918, the buildings were all fumigated and cleaned. Students were to be watched closely and sent home upon any sign of illness.

At DePauw University students returned after a two-week hiatus although coeds were to be kept in a state of quarantine. Remember, these were World War I days and the boys were exempt from quarantine since they had been monitored in camp, Barr pointed out.

The epidemic was called the Spanish influenza since the first case coming to the United States reportedly arrived from Valencia, Spain.

Those afflicted were given familiar advice: Go home and go to bed. Coughing and sneezing were credited with the spread of the flu germ.

The flu of 1918, the Barr column continued, was described as “a contagious kind of cold accompanied by fever, pains in the head, eyes, ears, back and other parts of the body.”

Sound familiar?

While the flu tended to run its course in three or four days, there were dangers of pneumonia to follow.

Doctors routinely made house calls, most of them accompanied by drivers so that doctors could get a brief period of rest as they went from house to house of flu victims.

The Spanish Flu killed 675,000 in the U.S. and a reported 50 million worldwide.

On April 13 of this year, COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death (1,450) per daily average, according to the website Assistedlivingfacilities.org. Heart disease (1,774) and cancer (1,641) were Nos. 1 and 2. It is projected to become No. 1 during peak days in April.

Since March 1, COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death in America (23,369) behind heart disease (78,050) and cancer (72,221).

The deadliest events in U.S. history, according to the website Assistedlivingfacilities.org, were:

1. Civil War: 750,000 deaths (1861-65)

2. HIV/AIDS: 700,000 (1981 to present)

3. H1N1/ Spanish Flu: 675,000 (1918)

4. Heart disease: 647,457 (2017)

5. Cancer: 599,108 (2017)

6. World War II: 405,000 (1941-45)

7. COVID-19: 240,000 (upper White House estimate from March 31)

8. Accidents: 169,936 (2017)

9. Bronchitis, emphysema, asthma (CLRD): 160,201 (2017)

10. Stroke 146,383 (2017)

11. Yellow fever: 125,000 (1600s-early 1900s)

12. Alzheimer's: 121,404 (2017)

13. World War I: 116,000 (1917-18)

14. H2N2/ Asian flu: 116,000 (1957-58)

15. H3N2/ Avian flu: 100,000 (1968)

16. COVID-19: 100,000 (lower White House estimate from March 31).