WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington County, Utah)
SPANISH FLU PANDEMIC OF 1918
in Washington County, Utah
DESCRIPTION
Pandemic vs Epidemic: An epidemic occurs when new cases of a disease in a given human population during agiven period substantially exceeds what is "expected" based on recent experience. A pandemic is an epidemic
of an infectious disease that spreads through human populations across a large region, like a continent.
A pandemic is a widespread epidemic.
The "Spanish Flu" Pandemic was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic resulting from the H1N1 Virus.
It was particularly deadly when combined with bacterial infections like pneumonia.
HISTORY
The first cases in Utah appeared in September and October of 1918 and ran through mid-1920.Utah had 91,799 reported cases and 2,915 death between 1918 and 1920.
REFERENCES
Book: "The Awkward State of Utah, Coming of Age in the Nation, 1896-1945"by Charles S. Peterson and Brian Q. Cannon
See pages 53-54
Book: "Dixie Saints: Laborers in the Field"
by Douglas D. Alder (for the information page, click here)
This book contains several histories that mention the flu:
Edwin M. Hiatt - Page 162
Blanch Mathis McComb - Pages 12-13
Verna Mae Isom Gifford - Page. 156-158
Benjamin Bringhurst - Page 250
Conclusion - Page 285
Other oral histories in the DSU Special Collections:
Nellie McArthur Gubler - 2005-102: "More people died from the flu than from the War (WWl)" Page 16
Grant Hafen- 1998-015: "Flu hit 2/3 of the town" Page 9
For some (but not all) of the Washington County News articles between 1918 and 1920, click here.
The individual articles are labeled with the year-month-day-page.