Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Tenth Biennial Report: Being the Thirty-Fifth and Thirty-Sixth Annual Reports of the State Board of Health of the State of Kansas; June 30, 1918 to July 1, 1920
To the Governor of Kansas and Members of the State Board of Health Greeting: During the fiscal year of 1918 and 1919 events have occurred of such an unprecedented character as to render this year noteworthy in the health annals of the state. A malignant epidemic of influenza kept the country and the state in three succeeding waves, accompanied by the high est morbidity and mortality that this country has ever seen, striking terror to the hearts of the people and rendering futile, in a large degree, efforts of health officers to stay its progress or to mitigate its malignant character. A mere recital of the unprecedented number of cases of sickness or the huge total of deaths due to the epidemic and its complications but faintly pictures the apprehension and anxiety of the people, the almost total suspension of social activities, the closure of schools and churches and all public places of assemblage, the stagnation of business, and the utter confusion and chaos of the whole social fabric of the country, en tailing enormous economic losses which accompanied this unprecedented and malignant epidemic. The first wave of the epidemic occurred in the early spring of 1918, although at the time it was generally unrecognized. The disease was comparatively mild in character and was unattended with the frightful mortality which characterized the second and third waves. The second wave apparently started in the United States army train ing camps in Massachusetts in August, rapidly spread over the country, moving westward, appearing in Camp Funston in this state in the latter part of September, from which focal point it spread throughout the state, attended by a high rate of mortality. The third wave occurred in the late winter and early spring of 1920, again spreading rapidly over the state, but, on the whole, milder in character and being attended by a lower rate of morbidity and mortality, except in a few localities, where the reverse seemed to be true. This was noticeably true in the following counties: Edwards, Pratt, Kingman and Rawlins. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
