Vol 39 • No. 4
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March 2018
Was 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic home-grown?
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By Ken Stephens In 1918, the deadliest epidemic in human history swept across the globe. By the time it had spent its fury, at least 35 million people, perhaps as many as 100 million, were dead. It was called the Spanish Flu, solely because the awful pandemic received unfettered publicity in Spain, because that nation was neutral in World War I and had no war-time censorship, especially after the flu touched the royal family. In fact, many epidemiologists and others who have studied the evidence believe that it all started right here in Kansas, that Haskell County was the match, and Camp Funston, a World War I army training post within Fort Riley, was the tinderbox. John M. Barry, in his book The Great Influenza, wrote that Lorring Miner, a country doctor from Santa Fe, then the Haskell County seat but now vanished, first saw a patient with
particularly intense influenza symptoms – severe headache, body aches, fever, cough – in late January or early February 1918. Within days he had treated dozens of similar cases in Sabetha, Sublette, Santa Fe, Jean and Copeland and on isolated farms. It worried him enough that he reported “influenza of a severe type” to the U.S. Public Health Service. The service offered no advice or help, but included Miner’s alert in its weekly Public Health Reports, which tracked disease activity around the world. For the first six months of 1918, Miner’s warning was the only flu outbreak deemed worthy of reporting anywhere in the world, Barry wrote. Combing the archives of Haskell County newspapers, Barry uncovered many reports of illnesses. In late February and early March 1918, he read several reports of young men traveling from Haskell County to Camp
Photo by Ken Stephens
The Wichita Manual Training Association, 2146 N. Topeka, was built in 1912. In 1918 the Wichita Red Cross converted it to an Influenza Hospital. The swimming pool and bowling lanes were covered to create additional wards; a kitchen and laundry facilities were added. When it opened it had 100 patients' in two weeks it was 147 patients. Funston. day furlough. The same week, papers reported Ernest Elliott left Sublette to visit that several people had fallen ill with his brother at the camp shortly after influenza in Jean and a young soldier his child fell ill. named Dean Nilson came home on And from Copeland, John Bottom leave from Camp Funston for a fivetraveled to Camp Funston for his See Flu, page 8
Your new Medicare card New Medicare cards should arrive in Kansas this July. To help prevent identity theft, these cards do not include your Social Security number. Instead you will receive a new, unique Medicare number. To receive your new card, make sure your mailing address is current. If you need to correct or update your address, visit ssa.gov/myaccount or call 1-800-772-1213 (TTY: 1-800-325-0778). Medicare will NEVER call you and ask for personal information
Questions about services?
Time to work in garden
before sending your card. Do not share your Medicare number or other personal information if someone calls on the phone and asks for it. If you want more information or want to speak to a Senior Health Insurance Counselor for Kansas (SHICK), call the Sedgwick County Extension Agency, 316-660-0126.
Central Plains Area Agency on Aging or call your county Department on Aging: 1-855-200-2372
By Janice Sroufe Gardening in Kansas can be an adventure with the rapidly changing weather and uncertain amounts of rainfall. But if you enjoy the outdoors and want to get a little exercise, the rewards can be substantial…or not. A Gardener’s Dictionary defines gardening as “the art of killing weeds and bugs to grow flowers and crops for animals and birds to eat.” Although this statement can be true, usually there is enough success in the adventure to benefit the gardener,
See Garden, page 5
Butler County: (316) 775-0500 or 1-800- 279-3655 Harvey County: (316) 284-6880 or 1-800-279-3655