Re: Nonpharma flu strategies 1918-1920
excerpts...
Most important, these communities
enacted a policy we have termed protective sequestration, or the measures taken by the authorities to protect a defined and still-healthy population from infection before it reaches that population.
These measures include the following: 1)
prohibitions on members of the community from leaving the site; 2)
prohibitions against visitors from entering a circumscribed perimeter; 3) typically
placing in quarantine those visitors who are allowed to enter for a period of time before admission; and 4) if available,
taking advantage of geographic barriers, such as an island or remote location....
Finally,
these communities had the advantage of early warnings to prepare their populations. Both
tracked influenza's westward movement from August to September and, unlike communities along the East Coast,
could implement protective health strategies before cases appeared at their doorsteps....
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/Conclusions
First,
protective sequestration, if enacted early enough in the pandemic, crafted so as to encourage the compliance of the population involved, and continued for the lengthy time period in which the area is at risk, stands the best chance of guarding against infection. Second, available data from the second wave of the 1918?1920 influenza pandemic fail to show that any other NPI (apart from protective sequestration) was, or was not, effective in preventing the spread of the virus. .....
