Page 17 - Community Living Magazine 34-3

coronavirus

People with learning disabilities
aged 18-34 were 30 times

more likely to die with
coronavirus than those in the
general population

On 11 November 1918, Armistice Day,
there were 10 burials – more than the
total for the whole of November the
following year.
The impact of the 1918 influenza
epidemic is undeniable. The asylum that
month was marked by death and dying.
The third feature of this graph is that
the number of deaths in 1918 was already
elevated. In the 10 months before
November 1918, there had been 345
deaths. That was almost as many deaths
as in the 24 months after December 1918.
Although the impact of the influenza
epidemic was considerable, it does not in
itself explain why deaths in 1918 were Memorial dated 1917; a sign warns of
already so high. If the death rate to the dangers of flu; a history of the
October 1918 had continued without the asylum, by Monica Diplock, head of
pandemic, we might have expected there male occupational therapy 1962-84,
to be about 434 deaths in that year, a shows the extent of the site
number still several times higher than
seen in 1919 and 1920. leading cause of death, accounting
It was not until the spring of 1919, for more than 40% of deaths in
some four months after the last recorded 1919 and 1920 but only 30% of
influenza death, that the number of deaths in 1918.
deaths seems to fall appreciably below The 1918 influenza epidemic took root a return to a death rate that was still high.
any month of 1918. within a setting where the health status Few may have asked at that time whether
However we look at it, the influenza of many was already compromised. In around one in 10 people in the asylum
epidemic killed many residents yet it those years, there may have been food dying every year was acceptable.
explains only partly why the number of shortages. There were certainly fewer As we say above, the risk of death for
deaths in 1918 was so high. staff since some had been conscripted people with learning disabilities is
into the armed services. Some wards elevated in the UK during the current
Casualties of war were closed and this probably led to more pandemic. It was high even before this.
The records we have access to give a than the usual overcrowding in others. We ask ourselves: do we find it acceptable
complete account of death and dying in These were ideal conditions not just for for mortality to return to pre-Covid levels
Leavesden only from August 1917. the influenza virus to spread but also for in the 21st century? n
Gwendolen M Ayers’ book England’s the ravages of TB to take most effect. The
First State Hospital and the Metropolitan daily burial toll on Armistice Day 1918 is References
Asylums Board 1867-1930, published in perhaps a symbolic reminder that the Ayers G (1971) England’s First State Hospitals
1971, shows that for every year of higher profile of and the Metropolitan Asylums Board
World War One, the number and death in the asylum in 1867-1930. University of California Press
proportion of deaths in asylums 1918 was as related to Diplock M (1990) The History of Leavesden
run by the board was increasing. the effects of the First Hospital. http://www.leavesdenhospital.org/
In 1914, 11.2% of people World War as it was to document-archives/
living in asylums died in them. a virus – these were Public Health England (2020) Deaths of People
Identified as Having Learning Disabilities with
In 1918, this figures had risen to victims of war. COVID 19 in the Spring of 2020. London: PHE.
27.0% – more than one in four Finally, the decline https://tinyurl.com/y2lj93p9
residents. The average seen in deaths from Spinney L (2018) Pale Rider: the Spanish Flu of
proportion of deaths in the four 1918 suggests that the 2018 and how it Changed the World. Penguin
years before 1914 was 9.4% of end of the war and the Random House
the asylum population and, in epidemic brought Weaver M (2020) Covid deaths for people with
the four years after 1918, it about a return to lower learning disability in England six times average.
was 13.1%. In most years, levels of deaths in the The Guardian. 12 November. https://tinyurl.
tuberculosis (TB) was the asylum. However, it was com/y39ecuxg

www.cl-initiatives.co.uk Community Living Vol 34 No 3 | Spring 2021 17