In April 1919, the Secretary of the State Board of Health, Dr. William Rankin, reported the death of over 13,600 North Carolinians from influenza, and estimated that approximately 1,000,000 of North Carolina's 2.5 million inhabitants had caught the disease. Nationally, the disease killed around 700,000, and some estimates suggest 20,000,000 died worldwide.

Above: The federal government used graphics such as this to educate people about the transmission of influenza. View the full image here.

Coming as it did during the height of the United States' involvement in World War One, such measures as the state took to combat "the grippe," as it was sometimes known, were often overshadowed by the patriotic fervor accompanying the war. Reports from the State Board of Health and the North Carolina Medical Society give some indication of the scale of the state's response. Later journal articles help to give color to what might seem an otherwise dry statistical picture.

Statistics about disease conditions in military camps are often the best guide to tracking the rise and fall of flu. Camps within North Carolina (Greene, Polk, Bragg), as well as those in South Carolina (Sevier, Jackson), to which many North Carolinians were sent for basic training, supplied statistics to the United States Public Health Service, which were compiled in the weekly Public Health Reports. Also included in the reports were articles on treatment, court cases, analyses, and telegraphic reports from other countries.

The Bureau of the Census compiled annual Mortality Statistics, revealing the ultimate human cost of the disease. They also provide a clearer picture of the prevalence of influenza compared to other diseases during these years.