1918, at the time of the end of World War I of imperialist peoples, one of the greatest pandemics in modern human history broke out.
Influenza pandemic is one of the most widespread diseases in the world. Nearly 50 million people died from the influenza pandemic in 1918 and 1919. It is said that more than one year died of influenza than died of bubonic plague in the Middle Ages in a single century.
There have been more deaths in the pandemic in the first 25 weeks since AIDS in 25 years. One of the great features of the pandemic expansion is that the people insist that they are not sick and that other people are being affected by it. It was called Spanish influenza by those involved in the war.
Many say that because of the geo-strategic interests of the warriors, they say they are not sick and many times suppress the information on warring towns so that its victims of war and sickness are not abused.
Because Spain was a neutral nation in the first world war, it was open to the publication of all the news, even medical news. This is why it is called Spanish influenza. Sometimes it is called the Spanish lady, which seems to have caused women to become ill.
As it spread to different territories, different names were also considered here, to prove that it was not a disease of the countries affected.
The Russians were one of the first to call the disease Spanish influenza or Spanish lady. The Russians called it a disease when it was published in Spain. Because some Chinese workers were diagnosed with the disease when it was observed in France, the French called it Chungking fever.
The British called it Flanders Grippe. On the other hand, German soldiers called it Blitzkatarrh. In the Malay Peninsula, it is also called Chinese flu or Caucasian fever. This view is important because of the spread of the infectious disease, the refusal to affect one's own community or the disregard for what it can cause to its own population as one of the reasons for its rapid spread.
Because communities deny that it is a disease, and other people are affected, the immediate reaction to cure the disease and prevent its spread is one of the reasons for the failure of the pandemic. A large portion of the population was affected by the pandemic when it reached the Philippines.
It was first recorded in Manila and quickly spread to other parts of the archipelago. Nearly 85 thousand people died from this disease during the years 1918-1919. The country's total crude death rate nearly doubled from 22.89 in 1917 to 40.79.
Some of the reasons for the high number of deaths in the archipelago are mentioned in official reports and notes by medical professionals. First, few personnel were assigned to the archipelago during the height of the pandemic. Many doctors and nurses are mobilizing American colonial involvement in the war.
Some doctors and medical leaders have retired early or left the service because of their disagreement with the bureaucratic policy of the bureaucracy and hospitals. Although the number of regular doctors for common illnesses is lacking, it is only getting worse as the epidemic strikes the country.
It also provided an opportunity for the country's medical leaders to apologize for who should be held responsible and responsible for the severe epidemic situation.
American doctors blamed Filipino doctors for their lack of essence and knowledge of the suppression of disease. Dean Worcester, with a racist point, even said that the Philippine General Hospital and other Philippine hospitals are no longer suitable for Caucasian patients.
The bureaucrats also quarreled over who should govern what institution. The Philippine General Hospital is under the Secretary of the Interior while the Bureau of Health is under the Department of Public Instruction. These agencies do not know who will be leading the campaign and how the procedure is organized to suppress the disease.
Military mobilization also played an important role during the epidemic. Even after the end of the first world war, the colonial government still insisted on recruiting Filipino soldiers to be sent to the European war zone. Lacking training, they were gathered at Camp Claudio in southern Manila and there preparations for war.
The massive deployment of Filipino soldiers into the field of war did not continue and some of them fell ill during training. Some of these soldiers became carriers when they returned to their hometowns without continuing their war. Camp Claudio and its neighbors have recently declared a quarantine site.
Although the camp was considered an extra cantonment zone, with some towns in Rizal and Cavite adjacent to it, Another important aspect of the disease progression is the lack of effective quarantine procedures, so that it can no longer infect the sick, and meet the medical needs of those with whom it has come.
During the American occupation, several quarantine stations were established in Mariveles, Iloilo and Cebu to address the challenge of spreading the epidemic. Several inspection stations for the arriving maritime vessels were also established to monitor whether their passenger passengers were ill or showed some symptoms of illness.
But with the experience of the Influenza pandemic of 1918, such institutions faced some problems. The disease spreads even though the quarantine system must have been able to control it. Funds, personnel, and resources were scarce to effectively prevent the spread of the epidemic.
The lessons of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic echo the current challenges facing the world on COVID 19. It seems that the government's immediate response to the spread of the disease seems to be hindering.
Health budget cuts; the lack of personnel and facilities to deal with the spread of the disease; the teaching and blame of leaders on who should be responsible for leading in its suppression; the racist outlook on sickness; and the lack of recognition of the effective credit system seems to repeat the risk to the population as a whole.
Lack of awareness of serious health issues as a people's right, and the lack of coordination of government institutions are some of the factors that prove that the spread of the disease can be widespread and widespread in the archipelago.