In 1918, the leading cause of death in Michigan was not heart disease, stroke or cancer.
It was influenza.
That was the year that a deadly flu strain swept the globe, killing more people than World War I, which ended in the midst of the pandemic.
Michigan’s deadliest year: Look back at 1918 flu pandemic
Almost 15,000 Michigan residents died of flu or pneumonia between October 1918 and April 1919, and the age group with the highest mortality rate were young adults age 20 to 25.
This post look at deaths by county, based on old state records.
Unfortunately, the state did not record flu-related deaths by county. However, the pandemic was so widespread and deadly that its impact can be deduced just from charting overall deaths rates.
Let’s start with the above chart, which looks at the month-by-month trend of flu and pneumonia deaths in Michigan in 1918-19. (This strain of influenza attacked the lungs, and many of the deaths were recorded as pneumonia or broncho-pneumonia.)
Now compare that chart with the one below that looks at total deaths in Michigan in 1918-19.
The uptick in April 1918 represents the first, less lethal, wave of the influenza pandemic. The second wave, in which the flu virus had morphed into a much more deadly strain, struck Michigan in late September and deaths skyrocketed in October.
By mid-October, the governor and state health department ordered the closing of churches and “places of public amusement,” from movie theaters to saloons. Many communities also closed schools. After those establishments were re-opened in November, deaths went up in December.