Oklahoma City’s ‘first’ flu epidemic
The flu outbreak continues not only in Oklahoma but also across the country.
This year’s virus already has proved to be widespread and deadly.
In 1918, the “Spanish Flu” would affect the entire world with devastating results — infecting an estimated 500 million people and causing between 20 to 50 million or more deaths according to website HISTORY.com
In Oklahoma it started quietly:
A short item on page one of The Oklahoman on Sept. 16, 1918, asked the question:
Has “Spanish flu” reached Oklahoma City?”
Local doctors report a number of cases of influenza which bear the symptoms of the malady which has swept the trenches in the last few months.
Spanish influenza is a heavy cold which makes the victim miserable for three or four days and then breaks quickly, generally without complications or bad after effects.
The disease has been sweeping England and a number of cities on the eastern coast of the United States have reported epidemics of a new brand of cold, which the soldiers labeled “Spanish flu.”
By Sept. 29, its arrival was official:
One case of Spanish influenza has appeared in Oklahoma City, according to a report made to the city health department by Dr. Winnie Sanger. The victim is Corine (actual spelling of her name was Clorene, according to census records) Smith, 601 ½ East Fifth street.
Miss Smith became ill Friday afternoon, Doctor Sanger said. Extreme nervousness appeared and yesterday morning she had a high fever. Doctor Sanger declared, however, that it was a mild attack, but the symptoms of the patient indicated that it was influenza.
Several physicians declared yesterday that there is no epidemic of the disease that they know of, none of them having treated any cases so far. There are many persons in the city who have severe colds and there is some hay fever here, they said. This is the first case of influenza reported to the health department.
As is often the case, Miss Smith’s sister, Mrs. H.H. (Bertha) Armstrong caught the flu, too.
Both women were fortunate and made complete recoveries.
Fifty years later, in 1968, The Oklahoman remembered the 1918 flu outbreak on Jan. 7:
The epidemic struck Oklahoma City and the rest of the state around October 1. The first day the virus was reported in the city, four persons died.
But in the short span of three weeks before the epidemic subsided in the city, more than 230 persons had died and thousands of others were hospitalized.
October 11 was the worst day of the disease in the city when 19 deaths were attributed to the virus in one day. There were several other days in which at least 10 persons died.
More than 5,000 cases of influenza were reported in the first week in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. In the first week almost every public school in the state had closed its doors until the end of the epidemic.
The reports of Spanish Flu had slowed in Oklahoma by the end of October with isolated cases continuing into November.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says this year’s flu outbreak has not yet peaked. It already has been responsible for nearly 100 deaths in Oklahoma and many more across the U.S.
In 1918, doctors recommended avoiding crowds, smothering your coughs and sneezes and to “Remember the 3 Cs — a clean mouth, clean skin and clean clothes.”
Today’s recommendations are not so different — sneeze in your sleeve, wash your hands often, don’t touch your face, and if you feel sick, stay home!