Influenza arrived in Illinois after sailors at Great Lakes Naval Training Station fell ill
On Sept. 8, 1918, influenza arrived in Illinois after sailors at Great Lakes Naval Training Station fell ill. A week later, seven army cadets from the Northwestern University SATC unit came down with influenza.
Then, a few days after that, cases developed among cadets at the Lewis Institute SATC unit on South Hoyne Street in Chicago itself. The epidemic had begun.
Military officials acted quickly in an attempt to contain the disease. At Great Lakes Naval Training Station, officers instituted isolation and quarantine controls, ordered all 50,000 sailors to be given daily nose and throat sprays (where, presumably, they could also be quickly examined for symptoms), placed 1,000 men in isolation when they developed symptoms and an additional 4,000 sailors under quarantine for suspect contact with the ill, and cancelled all liberty leave for enlisted sailors until the epidemic had passed.
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Source: Influenza Encyclopedia
Credit: Photo: courtesy: University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine.
