WHERE DID THE “SPANISH” FLU BEGIN ? SPAIN FRANCE USA OR CHINA ?
This article is collected from multiple sources.
Just before breakfast on the morning of March 4, Private Albert Gitchell of the U.S. Army reports to the hospital at Fort Riley, Kansas, complaining of the cold-like symptoms of sore throat, fever and headache. By noon, over 100 of his fellow soldiers had reported similar symptoms, marking what are believed to be the first cases in the historic influenza pandemic of 1918, later known as Spanish flu. The flu would eventually kill 675,000 Americans and an estimated 20 million to 50 million people around the world, proving to be a far deadlier force than even the First World War.
Despite the fact that the 1918 flu wasn’t isolated to one place, it became known around the world as the Spanish flu, as Spain was hit hard by the disease and was not subject to the wartime news blackouts that affected other European countries. (Even Spain's king, Alfonso XIII, reportedly contracted the flu.)
Haskell County, Kansas:
For those of us involved in the health care of the Native Americans, Haskell is a familiar word. A school founded in 1884 were where the children were sent, sometimes forcibly, for an education and away from their Indian parents. Just 13 days after the soldiers reported sick, the infection had reached the Indian school.
One unusual aspect of the 1918 flu was that it struck down many previously healthy, young people—a group normally resistant to this type of infectious illness—including a number of World War I servicemen.
In South Dakota, where there are a large number of Indians, the chances of death of Indians were 33 times higher.
A Canadian Historian had written that the origin of the virus was China. And he pointed the finger at the Chinese Labour Corps.
A deal between the Chinese government and the allies resulted in the enlistment of thousands of Chinese who formed the Chinese Labour Corps (CLC) mainly poor Chinese men from the north who were told they would be in non-combatant roles. The Canadian government had restricted the arrival of all Asians and the CLC were secretly landed at Victoria, British Columbia. They were drilled in the old quarantine station at Metchosin, British Columbia on Vancouver Island.[10] Roughly 81,000 Chinese men were then taken on Canadian Pacific Railway trains to Halifax to board steamships to England.[11] On arrival, they crossed the English Channel to France. After the War, over 40,000 returned by ship to Halifax and then by train to Vancouver; they were returned by ship to China.[12] [13] Unknown numbers never made it to the war front, died and buried in BC.
More people were killed by the Flu in 1918 than the First world war.
My comments:
I had the chance to visit some of the cemeteries where the Chinese labour corps are buried.
It was so sad to see young Chinese men dead so far from their homes. They were poor and recruited in secrecy as the Chinese government did not want its citizens to be involved in that war.
Outside the city of Arras in the North of France
I visited the Indian and Chinese cemetery from the World War I and it was sad to notice that many had died after the war had been over, possibly waiting to go back home and they were all young men.
The place was called Ayette if I remember correctly.de
