The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history,   ISBN:9780143036494

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The Swine Flu pandemic now sweeping across the country mirrors in many respects the terrible plague of the 1918-1919 Spanish Influenza that killed as many as 50 million people around the world.

In his detailed and well researched book, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, author John M. Barry has done a masterful job of recounting the sequence of events that characterized that terrible event and the efforts to curtail its effects.

Barry starts with the very genesis of the disease from central Kansas, it is believed, to a nearby army base and then onto overcrowded ships ferrying Allied troops to the war effort in Europe. The influenza is tracked to the very end when it mutates to a far less virulent strain and fades away. The medical and scientific terminology used in this book is generally understandable by the layman.

The flu spread like wildfire across national borders and millions of deaths occurred within just a short time so deadly was this particular strain. Two-thirds of all deaths occurred within a period of 24 weeks. Much like today's pandemic, it was the young that were most affected. Virtually overnight, hospitals were filled to capacity and an immediate shortage of doctors and nurses was experienced as even the medical professionals faced the grim reality of the Spanish flu turning into deadly pneumonia.

The U.S. was ill-prepared for fighting this horrific onslaught even though vaccines and anti-toxins were well understood at the time. Early efforts were for naught as those charged with a solution to the disease went down the wrong path, convinced that the outbreak was bacterial when it was actually a virus that could lead to pneumonia. It was 15 years before the virus was isolated.

Although it was only an influenza, some victims experienced an extraordinary and extreme array of symptoms. These included hemorrhage from all orifices, ear aches, splitting headaches and intense pain from different parts of the body. The body's own immune response killed many people, destroying the lungs. Not all people died who contracted the flu, of course, but enough to cause terror in city neighborhoods.

Barry's book was published in 2004 and he predicted that another pandemic could occur at any time. He has been proven to be correct.

There are, however, significant differences between today's flu crisis and that experienced in 1918-1919:
-Influenza strains are tracked on a world-wide basis and vaccines are
prepared annually for the worst strains allowing mass inoculations.
- The current strain of H1N1 is an order of magnitude less virulent than the
flu of 90 years ago.
- The medical community has much better tools for analyzing flu viruses.
- Massive facilities are available for producing vaccines although the
methodology remains largely unchanged.
-The timely use of drugs like Tamiflu and Relenza once symptoms are
experienced will lessen the impact of the virus.

Unfortunately, some will die during the current epidemic, but it is highly unlikely that this episode will approach the number of fatalities experienced just 90 years ago.

Barry's work is a great read and is highly recommended for today's readers to provide insight and context for the current H1N1 Swine Flu crisis..

Customer Rating: 

This book is a great read on the subject of the pandemic of 1918. The author sets this up with a background history of the practice of medicine in America. From there he goes into a very detailed account of spread of the virus and the actions taken to combat it. Amazing protocols were tried. The politics of world war I and some what primitive medical research seemed to contribute to the prolonged effect of the pandemic. What enhances this history book is how it parallels what is happening today. The book was written years before our current crisis, but it accurately describes the havoc this virus is causing. The author describes the virus progressing from widespread mild on the first wave to deadly wild on the next wave. The book accounts cases of healthy people feeling the symptoms of the virus one day and three days later are dead is similar to many of the accounts today. If our current pandemic reassorts into a more deadly variety like the one in 1918 that killed 100 million people, words won't be able to describe the consequences. I found out about this book through the Jim Bakker Show.

Customer Rating: 

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Greatest Pandemic in Human History. That is no hyperbole. The influenza epidemic of 1917-1918 killed more people than World War I, more than the plague epidemics that swept Europe periodically in the Middle Ages through the Renaissance. Barry brings to life the origins of the pandemic, the villains, the heroes, and the institutions it spawned that are here to this very day.

Mistakenly called "Spanish" flu, the influenza strain that decimated the world as WWI ended began in the heartland of America, in Kansas to be precise. Borne abroad by troops posted to Europe, it swept across a vulnerable world, gaining a foothold where troops were barracked, or tenements teemed with immigrants. Barry weaves together several threads in this book: it is more than the story of the flu pandemic; it is also the story of William Welch and the creation of the first school of public health in the US at Johns Hopkins. It's the story of the creation of the modern medical school, of which type Johns Hopkins is the first. It's also the story of the creation of Rockefeller University. Finally, it is also the story of the brilliant men like Welch, McCarty, Flexner, and more, who devoted their lives to fighting the flu and later on, other diseases as well. The discovery of DNA as the genetic material of most organisms is owed to McCarty's pursuit (along with Avery and McCleod) of a vaccine for the pneumonia bacterium, pneumococcus.

This book is for those interested in history, biography, public health, medical microbiology, and certainly more. You'll be educated about the way people lived nearly a century ago, about the life of great scientists, and the founding of the premier school of public health in the nation. Its greatest strength is the attention to detail. Its weakness may be the breadth of material covered: there's enough for at least 2 books. That said, I definitely recommend this book to colleagues and history buffs.

Customer Rating: 

This is a magnificent book; and should more properly have been named "The Great Story of Modern Medicine as Formed In The Crucible of The 1918 Influenza Pandemic" - but that would be hard to fit on the cover.

Like all great historians, Barry weaves the personal with the great events, but unlike popularists, Barry's focus on the individual is not an excuse for weeping sentimentality or even the creation of mythic icons. Instead he traces how modern medicine was created by the hard work of very fallible people. This is, in part, the story of a relatively small number of brilliant and nearly obsessed scientists who defied 2500 years of Hippocratic philosophy and an entrenched medical establishment that deprecated any scientific or laboratory work. As a result and in a single generation they were able to conquer such horrific killers as typhoid, diphtheria, polio and were then faced with their greatest challenge: the rapidly mutating swarm of viruses that created the 1918 pandemic.

This book grips with the intensity of Tom Clancy's best work, it has the depth and research of the best of McCullough and the story telling engagement of Tracy Kidder at his peak.

Certainly one of the best books of a modern historic event that I've read in years.

Customer Rating: 

Chilling account of a virus that killed 40 million people world-wide in 1918-1919..particularly in view of H1N1 concerns today. Well-written, but a lot of technical and historical facts preceding the actual pandemic.