The Great Influenza Book Review

The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history

As fears of the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak increase, the inevitable comparisons are being made to the 1918 - 1919 outbreak which killed an estimated 50 - 100 million people.

The Great Influenza is a fascinating account of the 1918-1919 outbreak. Focusing on the American experience, author John Barry offers an exhaustive, yet still readable story. It begins with a look at the state of American medicine at the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th and examines how professors at Johns Hopkins worked to “modernize” the system. Unfortunately, that modernization was still in progress when the epidemic hit. Beginning with a few deaths in military camps, then spreading to urban centers, the pandemic quickly overwhelmed the public health system of the time. In a single week in Philadelphia, more than 4,500 died, and bodies were left in the streets for lack of a system to dispose of them.

One of the things that struck me about the 1918 - 1919 pandemic from reading this, and several other books, is that it occurred in what had to be the perfect environment for such a disease. Thanks to the war, millions of young men were densely packed into army camps; troop and supply transport moved the disease rapidly about; there were worldwide food shortages; sanitation in many areas was nonexistent. No one could have come up with a better environment for infectious disease than the trenches of Europe. and, with the Wilson administration totally focused on the war effort, what government agencies that did exist failed to respond unil it was too late.

It’s a terrific book, and important reading in these times.

Read more about the greatest epidemics and pandemics in history.

Posted by The Editor on 04/30 at 06:55 PM