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BENGALURU: The scare around Covid-19 and the subsequent closure in Bengaluru are a repeat of what the city witnessed 102 years ago when another virus, the Spanish flu or Bombay fever, commonly known as influenza, had hit.
The disease had killed thousands in 1918, and the fight against the epidemic sowed the seeds for the formation of the state’s first Sarvajanika Arogya Ilakhe (public health department), which is now the Karnataka government’s family health and welfare services.
Viruses in Bangalore
The flu is believed to have killed nearly 20 million people in British India. The flu had reached Bombay in June 1918 through troops returning from the First World War. According to Mysore state records, the virus reached Bangalore in July 1918 and initially disappeared without significant impact. But the second wave in mid-September saw six weeks of his deadliest career in the city, leaving thousands infected. Hospitals and pharmacies in Bangalore witnessed long lines of sick people waiting to buy thymol solution, eucalyptus oil, and cough powder.
According to Professor TV Sekher, who has extensively researched public health in the princely state of Mysore, 1.27,651 people died from the influenza outbreak in the state. In the book Health and Medicine in the Indian Princely States: 1850-1950, Sekher records how government authorities had then established on October 30, 1918 anna chatram (food hall) and a temporary hospital in municipal gardens (later known as Chikka Lalbagh, who then made way for the Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna City Metro Station) to treat influenza patients. This was after Victoria and St Martha hospitals were unable to handle the number of patients and deaths.
Weekly newsletters, price control.
About 28% of the 198 patients admitted to the temporary hospital died. The situation in the city was serious. The 10 medical facilities in the Bangalore cantonment area treated 7,607 influenza cases. In total, in October alone, 49 deaths were recorded at Bowring Hospital and 52 at Lady Curzon Hospital.
The state dictionary records that, according to the orders of the then chief secretary CS Balasundaram Iyer, daily reports and a weekly bulletin on the state of the virus attack in the state, mainly Bangalore, were published. With merchants raising commodity prices, then-dewan Sir M. Visvesvaraya passed strict orders to lower prices or face legal action.
According to the records, 55 aid groups, including 218 volunteers, worked for the affected people and spread awareness, mainly the message of social distancing.
The Mysore State Revenue Department’s Influenza Epidemic report of March 4, 1919 recorded 40,000 virus attacks in a population of 88,651 in the city of Bangalore and 2,074 deaths. The rest of the Bangalore district (including places like Whitefield, Kengeri and Hebbal, which were then outskirts) had a population of 7, 59,522 and saw 16,600 deaths.
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The disease had killed thousands in 1918, and the fight against the epidemic sowed the seeds for the formation of the state’s first Sarvajanika Arogya Ilakhe (public health department), which is now the Karnataka government’s family health and welfare services.
Viruses in Bangalore
The flu is believed to have killed nearly 20 million people in British India. The flu had reached Bombay in June 1918 through troops returning from the First World War. According to Mysore state records, the virus reached Bangalore in July 1918 and initially disappeared without significant impact. But the second wave in mid-September saw six weeks of his deadliest career in the city, leaving thousands infected. Hospitals and pharmacies in Bangalore witnessed long lines of sick people waiting to buy thymol solution, eucalyptus oil, and cough powder.
According to Professor TV Sekher, who has extensively researched public health in the princely state of Mysore, 1.27,651 people died from the influenza outbreak in the state. In the book Health and Medicine in the Indian Princely States: 1850-1950, Sekher records how government authorities had then established on October 30, 1918 anna chatram (food hall) and a temporary hospital in municipal gardens (later known as Chikka Lalbagh, who then made way for the Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna City Metro Station) to treat influenza patients. This was after Victoria and St Martha hospitals were unable to handle the number of patients and deaths.
Weekly newsletters, price control.
About 28% of the 198 patients admitted to the temporary hospital died. The situation in the city was serious. The 10 medical facilities in the Bangalore cantonment area treated 7,607 influenza cases. In total, in October alone, 49 deaths were recorded at Bowring Hospital and 52 at Lady Curzon Hospital.
The state dictionary records that, according to the orders of the then chief secretary CS Balasundaram Iyer, daily reports and a weekly bulletin on the state of the virus attack in the state, mainly Bangalore, were published. With merchants raising commodity prices, then-dewan Sir M. Visvesvaraya passed strict orders to lower prices or face legal action.
According to the records, 55 aid groups, including 218 volunteers, worked for the affected people and spread awareness, mainly the message of social distancing.
The Mysore State Revenue Department’s Influenza Epidemic report of March 4, 1919 recorded 40,000 virus attacks in a population of 88,651 in the city of Bangalore and 2,074 deaths. The rest of the Bangalore district (including places like Whitefield, Kengeri and Hebbal, which were then outskirts) had a population of 7, 59,522 and saw 16,600 deaths.
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