Entre el olvido y el recuerdo de la pandemia de gripe de 1918-1919 en tiempos de la covid-19 / Between forgetting and remembering: the flu pandemic of 1918-1919 in the time of covid-19

Reúne um conjunto de ensaios que tentam esclarecer a dissonância entre a grande magnitude da pandemia de gripe de 1918-1919 e o aparente eclipse da sua memória, tradicionalmente atribuído à sua proximidade com a Primeira Guerra Mundial. Eles contam com a exploração de um conjunto de histórias pessoais, comunitárias, médicas e culturais de diferentes estruturas, nacional e transnacional, com o intuito de revelar a memória preservada sobre a grave crise sanitária, o esquecimento, os silêncios e o ressurgimento de memórias latentes. A experiência da pandemia de covid-19 enriqueceu substancialmente os resultados deste livro. Os casos particulares reunidos neste trabalho mostram diferentes processos construtivos da memória social e do esquecimento da gripe de 1918-1919, realizada nos anos pandemia e imediatamente depois nos ambientes geográficos e culturais selecionados. Revelam também algumas iniciativas e/ou circunstâncias que contribuíram para realizar novas construções sociais e recuperar a memória sobre a crise sanitária

Rastros epidêmicos nas fímbrias da dor: a memória da gripe espanhola na perspectiva da história local, Botucatu (SP), 1918 / Traces of epidemics in the fringes of pain: memory of Spanish flu from a local history perspective, Botucatu (São Paulo state), 1918

Resumo O artigo perscruta sob a perspectiva da história local de que forma a memória do sofrimento que cercou a epidemia de gripe espanhola de 1918 em Botucatu (interior paulista) foi reconvocada, tensionada e transmutada ao longo do processo histórico, produzindo representações em estratégias e práticas, e apreensões como constituintes de uma realidade social que produz sentidos. Para essa operação historiográfica, coligiram-se vestígios históricos em diversos arquivos botucatuenses, entre setembro e outubro de 2021, buscando desvelar processos históricos aglutinados e depositados entre as fibras e fímbrias sociais e que, sob afecção da temporalidade, se movimentam, se reelaboram e trazem à tona a inefável marca da gripe espanhola.

Abstract This article takes a local history perspective to scrutinize how the memory of suffering that surrounded the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 in Botucatu, São Paulo state, has been evoked, challenged, and transmuted over time, producing representations in strategies and practices, and understandings that end up constituting a meaning-making social reality. In this historiographic endeavor, historical vestiges were brought together from a variety of the city's archives between September and October 2021 in a bid to reveal the historical processes that were accreted and deposited in the social fabric and fibers, and which, under the processes of time, were changed and reworked, bringing forth the ineffable mark of Spanish flu.

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Back to the Future?

BACKGROUND: It is just over a century since the 1918 flu pandemic, sometimes referred to as the "mother" of pandemics. This brief retrospective of the 1918 pandemic is taken from the viewpoint of the current SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic and is based on a short lecture given during the 2021 Virtual Congress of the ERA-EDTA. SUMMARY: This review summarizes and highlights some of the earlier pandemic's salient features, some parallels with today, and some potential learnings, bearing in mind that the flu pandemic occurred over 100 years ago at a time of major turmoil during the climax to WWl, and with limited medical expertise and knowledge, research facilities, or well-structured and resourced healthcare services. While there is little or no information on renal complications at the time, or an effective treatment, some observations in relation to COVID-19 and vaccination are included. Key Messages: Lessons are difficult to draw from 1918 other than the importance and value of non-pharmaceutical measures to limit viral transmission. While the economic impact of the 1918 pandemic was significant, as it is now with COVID-19, subsequent economic analysis has shown that protecting public health and preserving economic activity are not mutually exclusive. Both H1N1 and SARS-CoV-2 viruses are neurotropic and may cause chronically debilitating neurological diseases, including conditions such as encephalitis lethargica (still debated) and myalgic encephalomyelitis (chronic fatigue syndrome), respectively. Although coronavirus and influenza viral infections have some similarities, they are certainly not the same, as we are realising, and future infectious pandemics may still surprise us, but being "forewarned is forearmed."

The Flu Pandemic of 1918: A Nurse's Story.

ABSTRACT: In the spring of 1918, a virus swept across the world, killing approximately 50 million people by the summer of 1919. My grandmother, Kathryn ("Katie") Ann Darmody-an Irish immigrant who settled in New York State in 1904-was among the nurses who responded to this pandemic, which became known as the 1918 influenza pandemic (or, erroneously, the Spanish flu). Today, as the world contends with the COVID-19 pandemic, my grandmother's experiences resonate with new meaning-a reminder of how, then as now, nurses have been at the forefront of public health. Her story, transmitted across generations, is one I now share with a new generation of nurses.

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic Versus COVID-19: A Historical Perspective From an Italian Point of View.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has a major precedent almost exactly a century ago: the world-famous H1N1 influenza virus pandemic, sometimes known to the general public as the Spanish flu. From a history of medicine perspective, it is possible to underline many potential common traits between the two. In this article, hygiene and prophylaxis strategies are analyzed in a review of the most popular Italian general medical journals at the time of Spanish flu, Il Policlinico being the most representative of them. The analysis included 40 original journal articles as well as important references to the most influential coeval national manuals and international journals. The main issues in the context of public hygiene are prophylaxis with quinine and quinine derivatives, vaccinations, face masks, disinfection, and social distancing. We draw a comparison between these and the most recent international World Health Organization and Italian national guidelines on the topic. Sadly, little has changed since those times in terms of most of the prevention techniques, even with technical improvements, showing how shortsighted doctors and physicians can be when dealing with medical history. (Am J Public Health. 2021;111(10):1815-1823. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306412).

Tracking Pandemic Severity Using Data on the Age Structure of Mortality: Lessons From the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Michigan.

Objectives. To test whether distortions in the age structure of mortality during the 1918 influenza pandemic in Michigan tracked the severity of the pandemic. Methods. We calculated monthly excess deaths during the period of 1918 to 1920 by using monthly data on all-cause deaths for the period of 1912 to 1920 in Michigan. Next, we measured distortions in the age distribution of deaths by using the Kuiper goodness-of-fit test statistic comparing the monthly distribution of deaths by age in 1918 to 1920 with the baseline distribution for the corresponding month for 1912 to 1917. Results. Monthly distortions in the age distribution of deaths were correlated with excess deaths for the period of 1918 to 1920 in Michigan (r = 0.83; P < .001). Conclusions. Distortions in the age distribution of deaths tracked variations in the severity of the 1918 influenza pandemic. Public Health Implications. It may be possible to track the severity of pandemic activity with age-at-death data by identifying distortions in the age distribution of deaths. Public health authorities should explore the application of this approach to tracking the COVID-19 pandemic in the absence of complete data coverage or accurate cause-of-death data.

Long-lasting effects of pandemics: The case of the 1918 influenza pandemic in Argentina.

The 2019 novel coronavirus disease pandemic poses a serious threat. While its short-term effects are evident, its long-term consequences are a matter of analysis. In this work, the existence of long-lasting negative effects derived from exposure in utero to a great pandemic -1918 influenza pandemic- is analysed for the Argentine case. Outcomes of interest include educational achievement and unemployment status in adulthood -50 years after the pandemic. Based on a regression analysis, temporal differences in the spread of the pandemic and between close birth cohorts are exploited. The results indicate a significant reduction in educational achievement for people exposed in utero to the pandemic. In the region with the highest incidence of cases (Noroeste), this reduction is 0.5 years of education. There are no significant changes in the chances of being unemployed. In the context of climate change, these results constitute a call of attention for the implementation of child protection policies from gestation.

Pandemics throughout the centuries.

Pandemics have ravished the globe periodically, often associated with war, at times commencing as fever and rash, beginning in recorded history in the crowded walled city of Athens during the Peloponnesian War as described in great detail by the Athenian historian and military general Thucydides in 430 BCE. As the world now faces the first major pandemic of the 21st century, we focus on the "plague" commencing in Athens in 430 BCE and the 2 pandemics of the more recent century, which killed more than one million, the Spanish flu of 1918 and the Asian flu of 1957. The latter linked with successful vaccine development thanks to the heroic efforts of microbiologist Maurice Hilleman. We now look back and then forward to the viral infection coronavirus disease 2019 now devastating the world.

The 1918 influenza pandemic did not accelerate tuberculosis mortality decline in early-20th century Newfoundland: Investigating historical and social explanations.

OBJECTIVES: The selective mortality hypothesis of tuberculosis after the 1918 influenza pandemic, laid out by Noymer and colleagues, suggests that acute exposure or pre-existing infection with tuberculosis (TB) increased the probability of pneumonia and influenza (P&I) mortality during the 1918 influenza pandemic, leading to a hastened decline of TB mortality in post-pandemic years. This study describes cultural determinants of the post-pandemic TB mortality patterns in Newfoundland and evaluates whether there is support for this observation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Death records and historical documents from the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador were used to calculate age-standardized island-wide and sex-based TB mortality, as well as region-level TB mortality, for 1900-1939. The Joinpoint Regression Program (version 4.8.0.1) was used to estimate statistically significant changes in mortality rates. RESULTS: Island-wide, females had consistently higher TB mortality for the duration of the study period and a significant shift to lower TB mortality beginning in 1928. There was no similar predicted significant decline for males. On the regional level, no models predicted a significant decline after the 1918 influenza pandemic, except for the West, where significant decline was predicted in the late-1930s. DISCUSSION: Although there was no significant decline in TB mortality observed immediately post-pandemic, as has been shown for other Western nations, the female post-pandemic pattern suggests a decline much later. The general lack of significant decrease in TB mortality rate is likely due to Newfoundland's poor nutrition and lack of centralized healthcare rather than a biological interaction between P&I and TB.

Influenza-1918.

Editor's note: From its first issue in 1900 through to the present day, AJN has unparalleled archives detailing nurses' work and lives over more than a century. These articles not only chronicle nursing's growth as a profession within the context of the events of the day, but they also reveal prevailing societal attitudes about women, health care, and human rights. Today's nursing school curricula rarely include nursing's history, but it's a history worth knowing. To this end, From the AJN Archives highlights articles selected to fit today's topics and times. This month's article is by public health expert Dorothy Deming, whose many roles over her long career included director of the Visiting Nurse Association in Holyoke, Massachusetts; editor of Public Health Nursing; and author of the Penny Marsh: Public Health Nurse series for young adult readers. In her October 1957 AJN article, Deming recalls her experiences as a nursing student in New York City during the 1918 influenza pandemic. She and a classmate managed a 32-bed women's influenza unit through 12-hour night shifts, a "baptism of fire for a young nurse," she writes. Deming describes shifts that sound eerily familiar given today's COVID-19 pandemic: overcrowded units, staff shortages, patients whose condition could change "in split seconds," and the emotional impact of working under these conditions. For more on COVID-19 in this issue, see "Standardizing the Accommodations Process for Health Care Workers During COVID-19."-Betsy Todd, MPH, RN.

[Spanish flu and coronavirus in Argentina: reading the past and understanding the present]. / Gripe española y coronavirus en Argentina: leer el pasado y entender el presente.

This article compares the scenarios generated in the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 and covid-19 in Argentina. It analyzes governmental policies and structural imbalances in the earlier pandemic based on case studies of the city of Buenos Aires and the province of Salta. It then studies those same topics for the covid-19 pandemic. It describes national policies and analyzes the province of Jujuy, where the health care system was overwhelmed. It concludes that in order to manage the pandemic it is necessary to create consensus policies to solve the structural imbalanaces in the country.

Se comparan los escenarios que se generaron en las pandemias de gripe española de 1918-1919 y de covid-19 en Argentina. Se analizan las políticas gubernamentales y desequilibrios estructurales en esa pandemia tomando como casos la ciudad de Buenos Aires y la provincia de Salta. Posteriormente se estudian los mismos tópicos para la pandemia de covid-19. Se describen las políticas nacionales y se analiza la provincia de Jujuy donde el sistema de salud se saturó. Se concluye que a fin de administrar la pandemia es necesario la elaboración de políticas de consenso y solución de los desequilibrios estructurales del país.

Gripe española y coronavirus en Argentina: leer el pasado y entender el presente / Spanish flu and coronavirus in Argentina: reading the past and understanding the present

Resumen Se comparan los escenarios que se generaron en las pandemias de gripe española de 1918-1919 y de covid-19 en Argentina. Se analizan las políticas gubernamentales y desequilibrios estructurales en esa pandemia tomando como casos la ciudad de Buenos Aires y la provincia de Salta. Posteriormente se estudian los mismos tópicos para la pandemia de covid-19. Se describen las políticas nacionales y se analiza la provincia de Jujuy donde el sistema de salud se saturó. Se concluye que a fin de administrar la pandemia es necesario la elaboración de políticas de consenso y solución de los desequilibrios estructurales del país.

Abstract This article compares the scenarios generated in the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 and covid-19 in Argentina. It analyzes governmental policies and structural imbalances in the earlier pandemic based on case studies of the city of Buenos Aires and the province of Salta. It then studies those same topics for the covid-19 pandemic. It describes national policies and analyzes the province of Jujuy, where the health care system was overwhelmed. It concludes that in order to manage the pandemic it is necessary to create consensus policies to solve the structural imbalanaces in the country.

Spanish Flu and the End of World War I in Southern Iran from 1917-1920.

The Spanish Flu was one of the disasters in the history of Iran, especially Southern Iran, which led to the death of a significant number of people in Iran. It started on October 29, 1917, and lasted till 1920 - a disaster that we can claim changed the history. In one of the First World War battlefields in southern Iran in 1918, there was nothing left until the end of World War I and when the battle between Iranian warriors (especially people of Dashtestan and Tangestan in Bushehr, Arabs, and people of Bakhtiari in Khuzestan and people of Kazerun and Qashqai in Fars) and British forces had reached its peak. As each second encouraged the triumph for the Iranians, a flu outbreak among Iranian warriors led to many deaths and, as a result, military withdrawal. The flu outbreak in Kazerun, Firoozabad, Farshband, Abadeh, and even in Shiraz changed the end of the war. In this article, we attempt to discuss the role of the Spanish flu outbreak at the end of one of the forefronts of World War I.

Pandemic Reemergence and Four Waves of Excess Mortality Coinciding With the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Michigan: Insights for COVID-19.

The global influenza pandemic that emerged in 1918 has become the event of reference for a broad spectrum of policymakers seeking to learn from the past. This article sheds light on multiple waves of excess mortality that occurred in the US state of Michigan at the time with insights into how epidemics might evolve and propagate across space and time. We analyzed original monthly data on all-cause deaths by county for the 83 counties of Michigan and interpreted the results in the context of what is known about the pandemic. Counties in Michigan experienced up to four waves of excess mortality over a span of two years, including a severe one in early 1920. Some counties experienced two waves in late 1918 while others had only one. The 1920 wave propagated across the state in a different manner than the fall and winter 1918 waves. The twin waves in late 1918 were likely related to the timing of the statewide imposition of a three-week social distancing order. Michigan's experience holds sobering lessons for those who wish to understand how immunologically naïve populations encounter novel viral pathogens.

Combating an invisible enemy: the American military response to global pandemics.

The present moment is not the first time that America has found itself at war with a pathogen during a time of international conflict. Between crowded barracks at home and trenches abroad, wartime conditions helped enable the spread of influenza in the fall of 1918 during World War I such that an estimated 20-40% of U.S. military members were infected. While the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is unparalleled for most of today's population, it is essential to not view it as unprecedented lest the lessons of past pandemics and their effect on the American military be forgotten. This article provides a historical perspective on the effect of the most notable antecedent pandemic, the Spanish Influenza epidemic, on American forces with the goal of understanding the interrelationship of global pandemics and the military, highlighting the unique challenges of the current pandemic, and examining how the American military has fought back against pandemics both at home and abroad, both 100 years ago and today.

How to Best Protect People With Diabetes From the Impact of SARS-CoV-2: Report of the International COVID-19 and Diabetes Summit.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus has rapidly involved the entire world and exposed the pressing need for collaboration between public health and other stakeholders from the clinical, scientific, regulatory, pharmaceutical, and medical device and technology communities. To discuss how to best protect people with diabetes from serious outcomes from COVID-19, Diabetes Technology Society, in collaboration with Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, hosted the "International COVID-19 and Diabetes Virtual Summit" on August 26-27, 2020. This unique, unprecedented real-time conference brought together physicians, scientists, government officials, regulatory experts, industry representatives, and people with diabetes from six continents to review and analyze relationships between COVID-19 and diabetes. Over 800 attendees logged in. The summit consisted of five sessions: (I) Keynotes, (II) Preparedness, (III) Response, (IV) Recovery, and (V) Surveillance; eight parts: (A) Background, (B) Resilience, (C) Outpatient Care, (D) Inpatient Care, (E) Resources, (F) High-Risk Groups, (G) Regulation, and (H) The Future; and 24 sections: (1) Historic Pandemics and Impact on Society, (2) Pathophysiology/Risk Factors for COVID-19, (3) Social Determinants of COVID-19, (4) Preparing for the Future, (5) Medications and Vaccines, (6) Psychology of Patients and Caregivers, (7) Outpatient Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus and Non-Pharmacologic Intervention, (8) Technology and Telehealth for Diabetes Outpatients, (9) Technology for Inpatients, (10) Management of Diabetes Inpatients with COVID-19, (11) Ethics, (12) Accuracy of Diagnostic Tests, (13) Children, (14) Pregnancy, (15) Economics of Care for COVID-19, (16) Role of Industry, (17) Protection of Healthcare Workers, (18) People with Diabetes, (19) International Responses to COVID-19, (20) Government Policy, (21) Regulation of Tests and Treatments, (22) Digital Health Technology, (23) Big Data Statistics, and 24) Patient Surveillance and Privacy. The two keynote speeches were entitled (1) COVID-19 and Diabetes-Meeting the Challenge and (2) Knowledge Gaps and Research Opportunities for Diabetes and COVID-19. While there was an emphasis on diabetes and its interactions with COVID-19, the panelists also discussed the COVID-19 pandemic in general. The meeting generated many novel ideas for collaboration between experts in medicine, science, government, and industry to develop new technologies and disease treatment paradigms to fight this global pandemic.