This week in Kentucky history, almost a hundred years ago (1919), Louisville was in the midst of a flu epidemic. When the flu outbreak first became visible, kentucky officials did not report it to the Public Health service, but they were still able to calculate the number of deaths. Only three weeks in 180 people had died, not including the vast numbers of soldiers who both contracted the disease, and spread it throughout Kentucky. Normally the PHS would not have calculated the number of deaths for just one city, implying that the vastness of this outbreak must have been severe.In Lexington, the epidemic was not as bad as in Louisville and the rest of Kentucky, but still was not good. They were included in the state wide announcement to shut down, “all places of amusement, schools, churches, and other places of assembly,” in an attempt to prevent further spread of the disease.
Carter, Breathitt, and Harlan counties were hit the hardest, partly because of the mining, which forced hundreds of people and the virus in an inclosed space together for hours, and because they were also have a smallpox epidemic at the time, meaning that if someone’s immune system could handle one disease, there was no way it could handle two. There were at least five deaths a night in each mining town, some claiming to have one person from their neighborhood died a night.
- Megan Slusarewicz
Sources:
http://www.flu.gov/pandemic/history/1918/your_state/southeast/kentucky/
Carter, Breathitt, and Harlan counties were hit the hardest, partly because of the mining, which forced hundreds of people and the virus in an inclosed space together for hours, and because they were also have a smallpox epidemic at the time, meaning that if someone’s immune system could handle one disease, there was no way it could handle two. There were at least five deaths a night in each mining town, some claiming to have one person from their neighborhood died a night.
- Megan Slusarewicz
Sources:
http://www.flu.gov/pandemic/history/1918/your_state/southeast/kentucky/