By P.K.Balachandran
Colombo, April 17 (SAM): Exactly a 100 year ago, Sri Lanka had the experience of going through a horrendous pandemic the Spanish flu or influenza, which claimed nearly 20,000 lives.
The “fIu” claimed 50 to 100 million lives across the globe; hit the poor as well as the rich; the prosperous West as well as the poverty-stricken East. And all were struck with equal severity. In South Asia, more than 20 million died in India and 20,000 perished in Sri Lanka.
Mahatma Gandhi, who had just then arrived from South Africa, caught the deadly flu in Bombay. He survived, but was so weakened by it that he wrote: “I lost all interest in living.”
As in the case of COVID-19, influenza came to Sri Lanka from abroad. In the 1918-19 case, soldiers returning from the World War I European battlefields to India and the US, brought it to their home countries. Travel and trade between the West, India and Sri Lanka brought it to Sri Lanka through then important sea ports of Colombo and Talaimannar. In the case of COVID-19, the carriers were tourists, business travellers and migrant workers entering through the airport in Colombo.
As in the case of COVID-19, the 1918-19 flu hit particular age groups. While COVID-19 is proving to be dangerous or even fatal for seniors above 60 and the very young, and for men more than women, the flu of 1918-19 hit the early middle age group up to 45. While COVID-19 has apparently spared women, the 1918-19 flu hit the women hard.
Langford and Storey
An academic paper entitled: “Influenza in Sri Lanka, 1918–1919: the impact of a new disease in a pre-modern Third World setting” by C.M. Langford and P. Storey of the Department of Population Studies, London School of Economics, tells the sad tale of the past.
Here are some extracts from the paper: As elsewhere, there was a mild first wave followed by a virulent second wave which was characterized by fatal pneumonic complications. Fertility fell about 1.1 per cent of the population died. Mortality seemed to be concentrated among those aged 20–40 and especially those aged 25–35. There was also a third wave in some cases.
The first wave was in the spring-summer of 1918 and was apparently fairly mild. The second was in autumn-winter of 1918. This showed a terrible propensity to lead on to pneumonic complications and death. About 20% of those contracting the flu developed pneumonic complications and eight out of these 20% died. The third wave (where there was one) came in the early part of 1919. It was serious but its overall impact was much less.
United States then as now
As in the COVID-19 case, the US had a big part in the flu epidemic. In the current case, though the coronavirus started its journey in China, it was when it went to the US that it became a pandemic. A century ago, according to Langford and Storey, the flu began in the US in March 1918 and spread across the world in the next four months.
It struck Britain in June and July, reached Bombay in June 1918and came to Colombo and Talaimannar thereafter. At that time, Talaimannar was second only to Colombo in terms both of the number of vessels using the port and the size of their crew. About 200,000 people passed through Mandapam quarantine camp in Tamil Nadu in 1918 en route to or from Sri Lanka.
In 1918-19, death due to influenza in Sri Lanka was 19,102 of which18,887 were recorded in the last quarter of 1918.The first to get the flu were Colombo dock workers. But by September and October 1918 nearly every province and district in the island was affected.
A notable feature of the disease was a rapid onset of pneumonia which is a lung inflammation caused by bacterial or viral infection in which the air sacs are filled with pus and become solid. Deaths were mostly due to broncho-pneumonia.
Malaria complicated matters
At the end of November 2018, influenza abated, but malaria surfaced in a big way. The latter made the people so weak that when attacked by flu they succumbed to it. Many cases of malaria were complicated by a pneumonic sequel probably due to influenza, local health officials reported.
Districts in the Dry Zone (such as Anuradhapra) suffered more than those in the Wet Zone. According to the authors, the Dry Zone suffered more because it was generally less healthy, less developed and less well provided with health and sanitary facilities than the Wet Zone. And the Dry Zone was also much more prone to malaria than the Wet Zone. Malaria combined with flu proved to be deadly cocktail.
In the South, the plantation sector suffered a lot because of the congested living conditions, the unhealthy environment in the “Line Rooms” where the tea workers lived, and the poor health of the estate workers who were poor laborers from impoverished South India.
Ethnic differences
According to the 1911 Sri Lankan census, 66% of the population were Sinhalese, 13% were Ceylon Tamils, 13 % were Indian Origin Tamils and 6% were Ceylon Moors.
In the short term, and in the worst months, the Indian Origin Tamils bore the brunt of the pandemic. The Muslims were next in line, and the Sinhalese were third. This position of the Sinhalese may well have reflected the fact that their habitations were much more scattered while other communities tended to live in close proximity.
However over a longer 15- month period, ethnic differences in morbidity disappeared, the researchers noted.
Women
It is clear from the data that women suffered higher mortality than men. A possible factor is the risk associated with pregnancy and childbirth. In most pandemics up to and including that of 1918–19, there were reports of abortions and stillbirths due to influenza.
In 1918–19, a series of 1350 pregnant women who had influenza were observed and it was found that abortion, stillbirth or premature labor occurred in 26% of those without pneumonia, and 52% of those with pneumonia.
But the authors state that the higher mortality experienced by females during the 1918–1919 epidemic could not be entirely explained by pregnancy-related factors. The real answer may be that, in general, at that time in Sri Lanka, mortality tended to be higher for females than males, they pointed out. The mean expectation of life at birth in Sri Lanka, in early 20th Century, based on the ‘normal’ rates, was 32.7 years for males and 30.2 years for females.
Mortality rates were higher for females than males in all ages except during infancy and in the 45–54 age group. Indian Origin Tamil women tended to suffer heavier mortality than men in the 1918–1919 epidemic partly because they were already in a somewhat worse health than men.
Food shortage
The effect of the epidemic on agricultural production, and the possible significance of food availability for mortality in the 1918-19 epidemic cannot be ignored Langford and Storey said.
There is little doubt that the influenza epidemic disrupted agricultural production in Sri Lanka. Low local production and the Indian ban on exports of food items (India was also suffering from the epidemic) were at least partly to be blamed for the food shortage and the consequent nutritional deficit and mortality in Sri Lanka, the authors stated.
(The featured image at the top shows Colombo harbor at the turn of the 20 th.century)
