1918 flu pandemic in Charlottesville-Albemarle
The 1918 flu pandemic in Charlottesville-Albemarle was the outbreak of an unusually deadly influenza pandemic in the City of Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle County between 1918-1919 as a part of the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic. Also known as the 1918 flu pandemic, it infected 500 million people - about a quarter of the world's population at the time, lasting from January 1918 to December 1920. The fast-spreading strain of influenza didn't reach the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County until the fall of 1918.
See also: 1918 Pandemic
1918 Social distancing measures
- October 3 – This afternoon, at the meeting of the Board of Health of the city, in view of the spread of influenza, it was decided to stop all large public gatherings until the disease was abated.[1]
- October 3 – The Daily Progress reported on this Thursday that Mayor E. G. Haden ordered "all schools, public and private, churches, theaters, and all other places where there were public congregations closed until Monday, October 14th, 1918." [2]. This order was extended week after week, along with additional closures and restrictions until November 2nd.
- October 8 – The Daily Progress reported that the mayor also ordered pool halls closed in response to the influenza. Service businesses remained open.
- October 10 – This afternoon, at a meeting of the Board of Health, it was decided to continue the closing orders, previously given on October 3, relative to the spread of Influenza, until October 21st. The Mayor, E. G. Haden, “ordered the Chief of Police to see that these orders were observed and that no congregation of people be allowed in the city.”[3]
- November 1 – At the advise of the State Health Department and the City Health Department, Mayor Haden issued a notice in the Daily Progress revoking the closing order from the original date of November 4th to an earlier date of 7 o'clock AM on Sunday November 2.[4]
- November 1 – The Catholic Church ran an announcement in the Daily Progress, “Tomorrow being All Souls’ Day, a memorial service for the dead will be held at the Catholic Church at 8 a.m. On Sunday there will be two Masses…these services will be very brief owning to the convalescence of the pastor, who appeared on the street today for the first time in several weeks.”[5]
Influenza cases
In Albemarle-Charlottesville the influenza outbreak lasting from the end of September 1918 to December 1920 - an estimated 5,000 people caught the flu and at least 227 of them (4.3 percent) died, out of a total population of almost 36,000. The flu predominantly killed people between the ages of 20 to 40, i.e., those born between 1878 and 1898.
1918
- September 30 – Forty-one-year-old Bruce Hackett (1877-1918), a carpenter who lived near Scottsville, was the first Spanish influenza death in Albemarle County.
- October 9 – Opal Mae Bragg, aged 24, died at her father’s home on Douglas Avenue, after a 12-day illness of Spanish influenza. [6]
- October 10 – Mr. John F. Wise (age 40) of Douglas Avenue was quite sick with influenza.[7]
- October 10 – Rudy Violet Maddex, aged 14, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D. F. Maddex, of Hickory Hill, died this morning at one o’clock of pneumonia, after a brief illness.[8]
1919
- April 28 – One-year-old Elizabeth Parker Blakey of Earlysville was the last recorded Spanish influenza death in Albemarle County.
Context notes
Deadly disease were common prior to the beginning of the 20th Century, front page headings of war news, bond drives and daily report of war casualties in The Daily Progress pushed most flu stories into small articles.
- Infectious diseases accounted for high morbidity and mortality worldwide. The average life expectancy at birth was 47 years (46 and 48 years for men and women respectively) even in the industrialized world. Infectious diseases such as smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, pneumonia, typhoid fever, plague, tuberculosis, typhus, syphilis, etc. were rampant. The discovery of penicillin in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) marked the beginning of the antibiotic revolution.[9]
Images
Further Reading
The Infuenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 in Albemarle County and Charlottesville, by Addeane S. Caelleigh, Magazine of Albemarle County History, Vol. 75, 2017. Albemarle Charlottesville Historic Society.
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References
- ↑ Web. Public Gatherings are Discontinued, Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises, October 3, 1918, retrieved March 3, 2020.
- ↑ Web. Public Gatherings are Discontinued, Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises, October 3, 1918, retrieved March 3, 2020.
- ↑ Web. CLOSE UP ANOTHER WEEK, Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises, October 10, 1918, retrieved March 13, 2020.
- ↑ Web. CLOSING ORDER ENDS TOMORROW, Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises, November 1, 1918, retrieved April 26, 2020.
- ↑ Web. CATHOLIC CHURCH OPEN TOMORROW, Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises, November 1, 1918, retrieved April 26, 2020.
- ↑ Web. [1], Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises, October 10, 1918, retrieved March 13, 2020.
- ↑ Web. [2], Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises, October 10, 1918, retrieved March 13, 2020.
- ↑ Web. Young Girl Dies, Daily Progress, Lee Enterprises, October 10, 1918, retrieved March 13, 2020.
- ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5354621/