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Medical Practice in Glassboro: Past, Present, and (my) Future

We Heard the Bells: The Influenza of 1918

Department of Health and Human Services Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services We Heard the Bells: The Influenza of 1918 ICN #006719 - January 2010 PIN 700293 In 1918-1919, the worst flu in recorded history killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. The U.S. death toll was 675,000 - five times the number of U.S. soldiers killed in World War I. Where did the 1918 flu come from? Why was it so lethal? What did we learn? Study materials are available at avaianflu.gov.

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1918 Influenza in New Jersey

The Biggest Epidemic unfortunately broke out in 1918, today we call this the Spanish Flu. The United States of America was effected as a whole and this put the field of Medicine to the test. This was during the time of World War I, but once the war ended in November of 1918, the flu would decline.

The Population of New Jersey in 1920 was 3.155 million. With that being said, Newark was the state's largest city which had a population of 414,524, and Jersey City had a population of 298,103 at that time. Similar to that of most East Coast cities, the influenza epidemic came early to Newark. Within the first few days of September 1918, the city saw a sudden increase in the number of pneumonia cases. At first health officials in New Jersey seemed very much unconcerned. As Influenza first appeared to be confined primarily to military camps, most notably Camp Dix. But then several dozen cases of influenza broke out in late-September at the Caldwell Rifle Range, which is located on a few miles away from Newark. Within two days the number of cases jumped from 60 citizen to about 150 who were effected by influenza. Simultaneously, 75 new cases developed among soldiers in the Newark area, and there were reports that 11 civilian were also affected within Newark. The real number was suggested to be closer to 400; however since city health officials and newspaper reporters could not have known this at the time, since influenza was not added to the list of communicable and reportable diseases in New Jersey until October 1.

The 1918 Flu Epidemic swept the world by shock as it killed an estimated 50 million people; unfortunately this deadly virus attacked one-fifth of the world's population. An interesting fact reported about this flu was that 28 percent of all Americans were hit by this disease. Since this happened during the time of war all the United States soldiers who died in Europe, half of them fell to the influenza virus and not actually to the enemy. The first mention of the flu that appeared in the Herald was reported Oct. 3, 1918. This enormous impact of the 1918 Influenza within the United States has been proven to drastically change the country as a whole. New Jersey in itself was greatly affected by the epidemic; this can be seen as a direct comparison to Glassboro, New Jersey. Knowing that nationwide hospitals were overflowing and overall citizens were perished during this time, we can conclude that Glassboro, New Jersey also experienced a tragedy relative to the rest of the nation.