When the word pandemic is used to describe the potential for any viral infection, we all tend to panic a little, if not a lot, in thinking of the implications of such an event occurring. 

The word conjures up horrific scenes of sickness and devastation, and rightfully so.  As a matter of fact, the latest craze among science fiction plots is the pandemic infection of the world’s population with a viral strain that transforms humans into mindlessly violent zombies.

In reality, we have faced few actual worldwide epidemics in the 20^th century, and they were all flu-related viral infections. The most recent of these occurred in 1997 and 1999 and were referred to as the bird flu. Several hundred people became infected, and at least six people died before the virus was contained.

Looking back 94 years to 1918, we can examine the most deadly pandemic in the 20^th century, one that affected the United States as well as the rest of the world. That year, the Spanish Flu, as it was known, struck hard all over the world, leaving a death toll in its wake that is estimated to be between 20 and 50 million people. The epidemic began as WWI was winding down and killed upwards of five times what the war did, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

In our state, the deaths based on the Spanish Flu numbered in excess of 10,000 and affected much of the state. In September 1918, the first cases of the Spanish Flu were reported in Madison and Conecuh Counties.

Prior to that, the epidemic began in Europe with the first major outbreaks taking place in Spain, thus the common name for the virus. Based on reports from the time period, this particular strain of the flu was lethal and hit people between the ages of 20 and 40 the hardest, an unusual trait for an influenza virus.

In the United States, the initial cases were reported at Fort Riley in Kansas.  The close quarters associated with the billeting of soldiers most certainly aided the rapid spread of the infection.

In Madison County, the flu cases began with a group of 11 and spread, having been imported from Philadelphia, Pa., according to Dr. C.A. Grote, who was the health officer for that county.

In Conecuh County, the flu’s origins were suspected to be Pensacola, Fla. Throughout the fall of 1918, the known cases of the flu virus increased all over Alabama. Newspapers in Birmingham and Montgomery reported outbreaks that led to the closing of schools and churches among other public facilities. By January 1919, the Baldwin Times reported that more than 400,000 had died nationwide from the Spanish Flu virus. The paper referred to the epidemic as “the greatest calamity of any kind except war that ever visited the American continent.”

The Baldwin Times reported that by the latter part of January 1919, the flu virus had subsided, but warned that many doctors maintained that it could return. It was described as being deceptive in its early stages, mimicking the common cold. The symptoms would then continue to worsen until, in many cases, the victim died. The flu claimed fewer and fewer lives as the spring of 1919 arrived, but it had made its mark on the state, the nation and the world.