World Wide Flu Epidemic Kills 20 Millions. 1918 Essay

World Wide Flu Epidemic Kills 20 Millions. 1918 - Essay Example The fort was an outpost in Kansas where new soldiers were trained before being sent off to Europe for World War I. A company cook apparently came down with the symptoms of the flu which appeared similar to the symptoms of a bad cold. He was isolated immediately; however, within the next hour, several soldiers were also admitted to the infirmary for the same symptoms as the cook (Rosenberg, 2010). Despite their best attempts to contain the symptoms, the flu spread quickly to the Fort Riley population and after several weeks, about a thousand of them were infected by the flu; towards the end, 46 of them died (Rosenberg, 2010). Similar incidents were soon reported in different military camps in the US and this spread on board transport ships and inadvertently this disease reached Europe via infected soldiers. When the epidemic reached Spain, the Spanish government immediately made the epidemic public; and since most people first heard the attack from the Spanish broadcast, the flu was n amed the Spanish flu (Rosenberg, 2010). It later also infected Russia, India, China, and Africa; but by the end of 1918, the first wave of the disease gradually tapered out. The second wave of the flu was however more deadly. It struck three port cities all at the same time (Boston, US; Brest in France; and Freetown in Sierra Leone) (Rosenberg, 2010). Hospitals were overwhelmed by the second wave as the patient population overflowed and depleted their supplies. The flu had a major impact on victims as within a few hours, symptoms of extreme fatigue, fever, and headache, already started showing up (Rosenberg, 2010). Patients were also subjected to powerful bouts of coughing which most often tore their abdominal muscles. Blood was often seen from the mouths, nostrils, and from their ears. Other patients also vomited (Rosenberg, 2010). This disease sometimes killed patients within a matter of hours from the first symptom manifesting and others within a day or two of the