How the Spanish Influenza Affected Kenya and Its Similarities to Coronaviruses

The 1918 flu pandemic (called the “Spanish flu”) remains most Significant public health events ever recorded in human history. It is estimated that 500 million people have been infected. 20 million and 100 million died. Most deaths occurred in Asia (36 million people). 2.5 million people died in Africa, 2.3 million in Europe and 1.6 million in North America.

The exact cause of the flu is unknown. A few Report shows It first occurred and spread in the United States in 1918. Recent research The pandemic started in China in 1917 and suggests that it was introduced to Canada and the United States by Chinese workers. The soldiers returning home after the end of World War I brought it to Europe and other parts of the world.

Spanish flu Return to come to Kenya Veterans docked in Mombasa Port. That country was then a British colony. In nine months, the epidemic killed about 150,000 people. 4% and 6% of the population At the time.

so Recent researchMy colleague and I investigated the effects of the Spanish cold on the coast of Kenya. Due to the port in Mombasa, the coastal state was chosen because it was the most important administrative area of ​​the colony. Also, the administrative and health records have been improved.

Since the important data during this period is incomplete and biased, we looked at stories about how the pandemic affected people’s lives. There are various forms of social and economic turmoil, Avoid crowds For non-essential service outages, paralyzed management practices, widespread food shortages, commercial losses, and overwhelmed healthcare sectors.

Kenya is fighting a new pandemic, COVID-19. It’s 100 years later, but new Coronavirus There is a reflection of those experiences a century ago.

The flu has spread rapidly

Our study used colonial records and correspondence from the National Archives of Kenya in Nairobi. The interaction of district-level and government-level administration on pandemics was an important source of information. These included minutes of weekly meetings of district heads, summaries of medical facility cases and deaths, case reports, district officer letters, and district regular reports.

At the same time (1912-1925), the entire coastal province (7 districts) had a population of 170,000-243,841. We focused on 5 out of 7 districts with data on pandemic cases. Kirifi (formerly Nyika), Kwale (formerly Vanga), Mombasa, Taitatabeta, Malindi.

Prior to the Spanish flu, there were between 9 and 33 outpatients per 1,000 hospital visits each year. By 1918 this had increased by a factor of 5, to 146.8 visits.

Similarly, the mortality trend has increased sharply since 1918, increasing from less than 5 to 1,000 per 1,000 people per year. This high mortality rate continued until 1925.

The Spanish flu has spread rapidly and mortality is high. In just nine months, from September 1918 to June 1919, approximately 31,908 cases and 4,593 deaths were associated with Spanish influenza on the coast of Kenya. At the same time, 150,000 deaths report Nationwide.

In 1919, a letter from a member of the Kwale District Assistance Committee explained who was the most vulnerable: “Death occurred mainly among old men and women. Youth and middle-aged people. … ”

In 1919, the Kilifi District Commissioner also described the conditions that led to more cases. b) It is usually a difficult situation in life. In other words, when food is no longer available or water is too far from the village … “

Health intervention

To address the pandemic, colonial authorities have developed guidelines for health workers, including social distances, personal hygiene practices, and health care. The ultimate goal was to reduce the infection of the community.

Healthy people were told to avoid contact with sick people and take precautions such as gargling and oral quinine with potassium permanganate.

Those already ill were advised to seek rest, home care and proper nutrition in addition to oral quinine three times daily. These rudimentary prescriptions had little effect.

Most local Kenyans do not have access to drugs or can buy, recommend home care, a teaspoon of paraffin oil three times a day, a starch-rich, milk-rich diet Did.

Prolonged rest and slow return to work were recommended, and tonic treatment was prescribed for patients with depression.

Social and economic turmoil

In four of the five district offices, absenteeism from illness caused some disruption to the provision of public services.

Among the local Kenyans, the disease caused unemployment, increased food insecurity, and affected households’ ability to pay colonial taxes. As a result, many have suffered from reduced “vigor” and low incomes.

For those who are dependent on Subsistence agricultureComplete or partial crop failures caused by bad weather and poor seed supplies in 1918 exacerbated the health of the population.

Economic turmoil has also been reported on large commercial farms. They suffered huge losses due to an unprecedented labor shortage.

In the healthcare sector, the situation was serious. The understaffed facility was overwhelmed by the influx of patients, low drug stockpile and little support for colonial management. The magnitude of the problem caused panic and authorities allowed the use of placebo medications to quench the anger of the population.

A century ago, the Spanish flu caused immeasurable pain and social disruption to hundreds of thousands of locals. We can argue that the mitigation efforts and medical advances of that time were of little use. Moreover, the ones that brought it to the nation, the World War and colonial rule, were beyond the control of the local population.

But what is striking is that the actions of local people contributed to illness and death, both individually and collectively. We found that most locals ignored quarantine measures and went to rural areas during the peak of the outbreak. This amplified community transmission.

With the COVID-19 Pandemic, you can draw similarities and learn from the past.

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