The following accounts of vaccines developed in 1918 come from the January 4, January 18, January 25, and March 22, 1919, issues of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Others across the globe tried to develop vaccines as well. On October 19, 1918, the Philadelphia municipal laboratory released thousands of doses of the vaccine (a mix of killed streptococcal, pneumococcal, and B. In Philadelphia, Paul Lewis worked on refining pneumococcal vaccines that had been in development for a few years, with the added challenge of adding PfeifferРІР‚в„ўs bacillus to the mix. Park, MD, at the New York City Health Department (and later instrumental in diphtheria immunization) was convinced that PfeifferРІР‚в„ўs bacillus was the culprit, and he set about devising a vaccine and antiserum against it. In spite of the uncertainties surrounding the cause of influenza, William H. In one article, the authors write, РІР‚СљThere seems to be no justification for the belief that the epidemic was due to the influenza bacillus, which is probably a secondary invader and bears about the same relation to the influenza cases as to respiratory infections of a different sortРІР‚Сњ (Lord 1919). influenzae in the ill, note its presence in healthy individuals, and observe it in other infections such as measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and varicella (chickenpox). Again and again, investigators wonder at the spotty presence of B. The 19 volumes of the Journal of the American Medicine Association ( JAMA) include many articles on the cause, prevention, and treatment of influenza. Many argued that the bacterial infections were opportunistic infections arising in the wake of influenza, and that the true cause of initial infection remained unidentified. influenzae could not be found in all cases of influenza, sometimes not even in most. Dissenters argued that other types of bacteria could be isolated from influenza cases, and pointed to strains of streptococcal, pneumococcal, and other bacteria as potential causes. The scientific and medical world widely, but not universally, adopted this view. Pfeiffer believed that these bacteria were the cause of influenza, and they came to be known as РІР‚СљPfeiffer influenza bacillaeРІР‚Сњ and later Bacillus influenzae (now Haemophilus influenzae). German physician Richard Pfeiffer (1858-1945), once a student of Robert Koch, had isolated bacteria from the lungs and sputum of influenza patients during the influenza pandemic of 1892. The name Spanish influenza came from the devastating effects of the flu in Spain in autumn 1918. Because of wartime censorship, reports of influenza were not widely distributed, but news from Spain continued to flow. Soon waves of infection moved through towns, nations, and continents, overwhelming hospitals and medical personnel. However, influenza became more deadly in late summer. Later that spring, officials reported large numbers of cases from Europe, though this flu did not seem particularly dangerous. Army camps in Kansas in early spring 1918. The first reported cases of an unusual influenza appeared in U.S. The mortality rate was highest among adults under age 50, who were, for unknown reasons, particularly vulnerable to serious disease resulting from this strain of influenza. Newspaper reports described people dying within hours of first feeling ill. Worldwide, at least 40 million people died as this virulent illness swept through city after city (some estimates put total deaths closer to 70 million). No other epidemic has claimed as many lives as the Spanish influenza epidemic in 1918-1919. Scientists and physicians tried many different approaches to develop influenza vaccines during the pandemic even though the cause of influenza was not clear.

When the illness emerged, several useful vaccines had already been developed: smallpox, typhoid fever, and rabies, for example. ItРІР‚в„ўs National Influenza Vaccination Week, and weРІР‚в„ўre taking a look back to 1918, the time of the РІР‚СљSpanishРІР‚Сњ influenza pandemic.

Spanish flu timeline