Nov 6, 2018 3 min read

The reasons for getting a flu shot are many – and they were underscored in an article in Sunday’s Observer-Reporter.

Staff writer Brad Hundt flashed back a century to the influenza pandemic of 1918, which occurred during the final months of World War I, yet was much deadlier. The global epidemic killed an estimated 50 million to 100 million people – 20 to 40 percent of the global population. WWI, a horrific conflict that did not live up to its moniker – “The War to End All Wars” – claimed 16 million lives.

Medically, those were much less enlightened times, of course. Penicillin would not be discovered until 1928 and flu vaccines would not be developed until the 1940s. The public was more susceptible to illness, especially the so-called “Spanish Flu” of 1918, caused by the H1N1 virus.

That particular flu, according to Hundt, “didn’t vary greatly from later strains that took far fewer lives.” The widespread epidemic was blamed on the war, with military personnel and other segments of the population moving about, but conditions at the time made this a more virulent threat. Cities were overcrowded and not as sanitary as they should have been and nutrition was subpar.

The flu became a concern in Pennsylvania in early October, when the State Health Commission ordered all communities -via telegraph – to close sites of “public amusement.” This meant dance halls, movie theaters and sports venues, whose owners lost money but reluctantly complied.

Hundt focused on the flu’s effects in Washington and Greene counties, where they were minimal the first two weeks after the commission’s order. Schools remained open, with educators urged to ventilate classrooms, practice good hygiene and allow students to play outside.

Then the Spanish flu hit, with 57 new cases reported around Washington, many of them in the Tylerdale area. Schools shifted gears, keeping everyone locked indoors. The clubhouse at Washington County Golf and Country Club was converted to an emergency hospital.

“Conditions here are serious,” the Washington Reporter, a daily newspaper, proclaimed.

The Mon Valley likewise was getting hit at this time, as hundreds of cases were reported in Donora and Monongahela, followed by a breakout in Charleroi. At least six died in Avella, in western Washington County.

This was no treat, and Halloween was canceled. But within a few days, the flu appeared to be abating locally. By Nov. 7, it was no longer a page 1 story in the Reporter. The end of the war, including the resultant celebrations, became the overriding news story. Gathering places reopened.

The Spanish Flu continued to wreak havoc in other parts of globe, but its effects on Washington County, and Western Pennsylvania, weren’t as severe. It was prevalent in this area for merely a month.

Anne Madarasz, chief historian at the Senator John Heinz History Center, told Hundt that the flu was “gone almost as quickly as it came.”

It still had an impact here, though. And that’s why flu shots are advised.