Preventing the spread of the flu in the community, past and present

When the Spanish Flu struck Libby, modern medicine remained in its infancy.

Historian John Barry, author of “The Great Influenza,” wrote in a 2017 piece for Smithsonian Magazine that when the illness washed across America, doctors still thought “miasma” might have played a role in the spread of the virus. Devices capable of visualizing a virus, like electron microscopes, were years away, according to the American College of Emergency Medicine.

The Western News reported extensively, at the time, about a potential vaccine or “serum” for the illness. While vaccines were in use by 1918, the one developed for the Spanish Flu proved ineffective.

“More than 10,000 complete series of inoculations are sent to the Philadelphia Board of Health,” wrote Dr. Andrew Milsten, for the American College of Emergency Medicine. “Researchers worked on vaccines, under the auspices of the U.S. Public Health Services, but they were focused on bacterium and missed the mark. Thousands of people were inoculated, with no effect.”

But some of the advice echoes closely with what medical officials are telling the public as the coronovirus spreads across the globe. In an Oct. 24 article, The Western News published best practices for preventing the spread of the influenza.

The steps included “avoid needless crowding;” “smother your coughs and sneezes:” and “your fate may be in your own hands; wash your hands before eating.”

Jennifer McCully, Lincoln County public health manager, said officials today also recommend avoiding close contact, especially with those sick. Likewise, officials advise hand washing (using alcohol-based hand rubs when soap and water are not available), and covering the nose and mouth.

“It may prevent those around you from getting sick,” McCully wrote in an email. “Flu and other serious respiratory illnesses, like respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), whooping cough, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), are spread by cough, sneezing or unclean hands.”

McCully said officials recommend staying at home if you become ill, which matches efforts in Libby in 1918 to prevent public gatherings. McCully also advised taking steps to stay healthy, such as cleaning and disinfecting, drinking fluids, exercising, eating right and getting a good night’s sleep.

In 1918, The Western News recommended residents keep “a clean mouth, a clean skin and clean clothes” and eating nutritiously.

But The Western News also published medical ideas that might seem farfetched today. For instance, when the Spanish Flu seemed to bypass Anaconda, the newspaper reported that a local doctor there believed the sulfur and arsenic from the town’s smelter was keeping the community safe by killing the germs.