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Monday, October 14, 2002If the gates of hell had creaked open, it couldn't have been much worse. Death roamed the streets of Akron. It was found in a lover's caress, a child's kiss, a stranger's handshake. There was no place to escape. The Spanish Influenza, a gauze-wrapped nightmare of death and delirium, brought the city to its knees in October 1918. Few families were spared its withering touch. If you ever visit an old cemetery, you'll notice 1918 engraved on a lot of headstones. The killer flu claimed about 40 million lives worldwide, including an estimated 675,000 Americans. In less than eight weeks, the epidemic sickened more than 5,000 Akron residents. Of that number, 630 died of influenza and 278 died of pneumonia. In comparison, Akron lost 304 soldiers in World War I. And many of them were flu victims, too. The story goes on to describe how difficult it was to enforce quarantine, and how the sick overwhelmed the hospitals, forcing the city to use an armory as a make-shift hospital. The article's intention is to impress readers with the importance of influenza immunization, but it could also be read as a cautionary tale in our smallpox preparedness plans. posted by Sydney on 10/14/2002 07:36:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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