CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- The 1918 Influenza Pandemic, also known as "Spanish flu," claimed the lives of tens of millions of people worldwide, including more than 1,000 people in southern Central Ohio.
The summer before the pandemic hit, Camp Sherman was created by the federal government near Chillicothe in order to train 40,000 troops during the start of World War I. The 2,000-acre site had more than 2,000 buildings.
In September of 1918, there was an outbreak.
There were 33,000 men stationed at the base, according to Rami Yoakum, spokesperson for the Ross County Health District.
A third of them contracted the flu, and 1,155 of them died. In the rest of Ross County, 150 civilians died.
County officials acted promptly to quarantine the region.
"Soldiers couldn't go into the city. Civilians couldn't go into the camp. Schools were closed. Churches were closed," Yoakum said.
The local morgue filled so quickly that they had to use the Majestic Theater in downtown Chillicothe as a makeshift morgue.
These days, with vaccines and medical breakthroughs from last century to the next, is there a chance of history repeating itself?
"I don't see H1N1 swine flu being anything like Spanish flu, but influenza's unpredictable. You never know," Yoakum said.
Two Ross County residents have contracted H1N1 within the past week.
Yoakum said the county expects 300 doses of flu mist later this week.
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