Dayton Daily News, January 1, 1919
572 DEATHS IN 1918 TRACED TO “FLU” EPIDEMIC
Estimate Places Number of Cases in City Between 40,000 and 50,000—Disease Now Checked
Figures compiled Thursday by health officials show that 572 deaths in Dayton in the past year just closed can be traced to the influenza epidemic.
Total number of deaths from pneumonia and influenza since the epidemic broke out in October were 639. Deaths in the corresponding three months in 1917, from pneumonia alone, were 67. The total of 572, due to influenza, is obtained by deducting the pneumonia average from the total for the two diseases.
Reports for Thursday continue to show a light death rate and preparations are going ahead for the reopening of the schools Monday, January 6. The grade schools have been closed since the ban on children was placed on December 9.
Health Officer Peters said Thursday that an average of one or two deaths a day may be expected for several weeks from old cases, which have not yet reached a crisis.
Approximate estimates Thursday by officials of the division of health placed the total number of cases in the city from the epidemic at between 40,000 and 50,000. No official record was kept of the cases.
Dayton Daily News, January 6, 1919
VACATION OVER; FLU BAN RAISED; SCHOOLS REOPEN
The Dayton Schools were working full blast for the first time since December 9.
All grade schools and high schools reopened Monday morning. At a majority of the schools a larger attendance was reported than was present at the time they closed. A decrease in the number of influenza cases was given as the cause of the increase attendance.
The grade schools have been closed since December 9, when restrictions were placed on children under 14 years of age on account of the influenza epidemic.
The high schools have been closed for the annual Christmas vacation since the Friday before Christmas. Night schools will open on regular schedule Monday evening.
No more interruptions in the school schedule were anticipated Monday by school officials. With the exception of a possible shortening the spring vacation from one week to one day, Good Friday, no effort will be made to compel students to make up for lost time, it is said.
HOW INFLUENZA AFFECTED SCHOOLS
As a result of the influenza epidemic, grade schools were closed 31 days, and the three high schools 22 days, records show.
The only attempt to make up lost time will be at the spring vacation, which may be shortened from one week to a holiday on Good Friday.
The daily school period will not be lengthened, and the schools will close for the year at the scheduled time of June 20, Superintendent Miller said Saturday.
The reopening of the schools Monday, by official sanction, is taken as an indication that all danger of the further spread of the influenza epidemic in the city has passed, for the present at least.
Summarizing the results of the disease in Dayton, Health Commissioner Dr. A. O. Peters is authority for the statement that the epidemic has thus far claimed approximately 580 victims and attacked with varying severity from 40,000 to 50,000 others.
Breaking out in October, it required three months for the epidemic to run its course locally. A general ban was placed on Oct. 9, and remained in force about four weeks. Renewed signs of a second phase of the epidemic caused a ban on children under 14 years of age to be ordered on Dec. 9 remaining in force up until New Year’s eve. Every known method for checking the spread of the disease was tried by Dayton authorities.
So widespread did the disease become, however, that ordinary methods proved unavailing and were discarded. The quarantine law was included in the list of abandoned preventative measures and it was succeeded by the ban.
It was an acknowledged fact that the so-called “second epidemic” was milder than the first and that children formed the majority of the victims. Health officials are unable to explain why the disease in the latter stages attacked children, but explain the milder form by the fact that a germ loses it virulence by being scattered and checked temporarily.
The large death rate in army camps is explained by the fact that the germs were communicated quickly from one solder to another and thereby increased instead of decreased in virulence.
Health officials the country over still maintain that the nation-wide epidemic was not the result of the recognized influenza germ, but is another disease, the origin and treatment of which remains a medical mystery.
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