No repeat of 1918 pandemic
It’s been a 100 long years since it began eating away at the world’s population, one region, one country and then one continent at a time. It killed more people than the lives that were taken in World War I, the ravenous battle that was unfolding in the same time period. Today, health officials warn it could happen again and the magnitude of the 1918 flu pandemic will live in infamy as a warning sign of the damage that can occur by widespread disease.
It’s really not known where the influenza pandemic of 1918 originated, but the aggressive strain was dubbed "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe" because it first began infecting mass populations in Spain in early 1918. It was first reported in the U.S. at an Army base in Kansas in March 1918 where hundreds of soldiers grew ill. It quickly swept the nation and spread to several European countries as troops moving to and from stations in World War I were inevitably spreading the disease. By the fall, it hit New Jersey. By 1919 when the pandemic reached its end, an estimated 40 million people worldwide were dead.
Southern Bergen County was by no means immune to the devastation and ravages of the pandemic that would by the end of its wrath leave a trail of death through the region.
In Carlstadt for instance, according to borough death records, the pandemic swept into town and took its first victim on Oct. 12, 1918. For the next three months, 11 more residents would succumb to influenza. They included residents from all walks of life: a 33-year-old butcher that lived on Broad Street, a 35-year-old florist that lived just down the street from the butcher and a 17-year-old plumber apprentice that lived on Hoboken Road who was just getting his career off the ground. It also took the lives of a couple housewives and even a baby just a little over a year old.
A look into the past shows how the Carlstadt health department took a proactive role during the outbreak and was called upon after by federal agencies to help prepare for another in the event one struck again.
On Oct. 10, 1918, Mayor Christian Starke opened the regular meeting by reading a communication from the health board by stating, "On account of the order from the local board of health prohibiting the holding of public meeting the council only take up such matter as were absolutely necessary." The move was typical throughout the state as public gatherings, social events and meetings were banned unless essential to the public good so as not to expose those with influenza to the remaining healthy stock of residents. In Newark, city officials went as far as banning public funerals.
By October the following year, according to borough board of health minutes, the state department of health had requested a list of names and addresses of physicians who would be available for service in the event of a possible recurrence of an influenza epidemic. The secretary was to provide the state with the names of Dr. Sickenberger and Dr. Trossbach.
Archives from the Rutherford Republican dive further into telling the tale of the disease’s prevalence and impact on the region. The New York Telephone Company issued an advertisement in the newspaper on Nov. 16, 1918 thanking its customers for respecting the company’s dwindled resources in the wake of the outbreak. "During the last three weeks when Spanish Influenza so seriously depleted our operating force, you were asked to make only necessary calls," read the ad. "Your response helped to relieve the situation and helped us continue to furnish necessary services."
According to Rutherford health administrator Brian O’Keefe, death records revealed that between September 1918 and March 1919, a total of 65 residents were reported deceased and of that amount, 21 were listed as killed by an infliction of influenza or pneumonia, which commonly followed the flu. In the next seven months, 38 total deaths were recorded and only one was due to pneumonia and influenza.
In Lyndhurst, it was revealed by an obituary in the Rutherford Republican from the Jan. 11, 1919 edition that even the toughest and most admired residents were not immune to the epidemic. Michael McIntyre, the first chief of police in the township, had passed away at the age of 33 from pneumonia following an attack of influenza. According to the obituary, "Aside from being the head of the police, the deceased was one of the most popular men in the township in which he lived from a child. Since holding the office of chief he made a most excellent record for efficiency, both personally and as an executive."
Hospitals were also apparently not prepared for such a pandemic. According to the Volume I of the History of Bergen County, 1630-1923 edited by then curator of the Bergen County Historical Society Frances Westervelt, the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders was lobbying the state to allow an expansion of hospital facilities. The board said in 1917, just one year before the pandemic, the expansion was needed to house tuberculosis patients and others with communicable diseases that traditionally had to be sent out of county for treatment. The state allowed the county to build upon Englewood Hospital, but the move may have been a little too late to house the pandemic victims as construction 100 years ago would have taken several times the amount of time it does in today’s modern society.
"This is something that public health officials are always concerned with," said O’Keefe, talking of the still constant uneasiness that an epidemic can still occur. As seen this winter, the flu vaccinations didn’t exactly match the strain that was infecting citizens. It takes six months to produce the vaccination and if a strain is that overwhelming and the Center for Disease Control cannot predict its presence soon enough, the results could be catastrophic. "We always think of the services we’re provided and take them for granted, but imagine if an epidemic hit and say our DPW was not able to clear snow and garbage was never picked up…it could have more far reaching effects."
In opening remarks by Secretary of Health and Human Services Mark Leavitt at the New Jersey State Summit in 2006, he confirmed fears that both O’Keefe and health officials everywhere have.
