On Oct. 5, 1918, the city of Philadelphia reported about 1,500 new influenza cases. Many employees of the health department were reported among the sick, and manufacturing executives of the city’s many war industries plants reported that ten to twenty percent of their workforces had been stricken by influenza.

Only two days later, the number of cases grew to 5,561. North Philly alone, the industrial hub of the city and the workingman’s section, had over 3,000 influenza cases.

The surge in new influenza cases quickly overwhelmed hospitals and medical staff. Philadelphia’s Director of Public Health and Charities, Dr. Wilmer Krusen called on senior medical students from the University of Pennsylvania, Jefferson College, and Hahnemann College to assist overworked hospital physicians, and over 300 volunteered for service.