Influenza In 1918: A Case Study

In addition to the lack of knowledge, the army was also short of medical workers, including physicians and nurses, which led to delayed treatment, inadequate care of patients and failure to contain and control the influenza. The Army Medical Department enrolled about 30,591 medical officers, and the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery recruited about 3,000 medical workers, but they were not adequate even in non-epidemic time. For example, on Jan. 2nd, 1918, army nurse Maude Frances Essig complained that many of the nurses caught a cold but they were unable to get a doctor to see the sick ones and there were no medications either. Conditions got worse when sickness increased. Doctors and nurses had to work overtime, with huge workload and
Among 30,500 medical officers recruited by the Army Medical Department, only 350 blacks were included. Similar situations took place in the nurse recruitment. The Army Medical Department refused to take any black nurses until December 1918 when the condition became graver[19]. And only 18 black Red Cross nurses joined the Army Nurse Corps to take care of German prisoners and black soldiers. The government ignored the help that the black offered and didn’t turn to them until the last minute, which was a
For instance, quarantine was one common way to stop contagious diseases from spreading, but it didn’t work during wartime. In Camp Upton which was closed on Sept. 17, 1918 to “check influenza”. “Commander stops leaves and bars visitors.” On October 4, a girl managed to get into the camp and visit his fiancé, but she was later infected with epidemic and died at the camp. As for Camp Funston, which was closed since Sept. 9, 1918, one soldier got home and got a prolonged visit during quarantine. It was too hard to completely shut down a camp containing 25,000 to 55,000 troops. And sometimes a single negligence might cause a death. Equally impracticable was “provide[ing] 60 square feet per man” and “avoid [ing] crowding the men.” The physical condition put doctors in an inferior position against