Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24612961›Full record

ArticleInfluenza and other respiratory viruses2014

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 in Sri Lanka: its demographic cost, timing, and propagation.

Siddharth Chandra, Dilshani Sarathchandra

Abstract readHistorical Article
In one paragraph

Article in Influenza and other respiratory viruses, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Early assessment of the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and births in high-income countries.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Siddharth ChandraAsian Studies Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA.
Dilshani Sarathchandra

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAs an island and a former British colony, Sri Lanka is a case of special interest for the study of 1918-1919 influenza pandemic because of its potential for isolation from as well as integration into the world epidemiologic system.

objectivesTo estimate population loss attributable to the influenza pandemic and weekly district-level excess mortality from the pandemic to analyze its spread across the island.

methodsTo measure population loss, we estimated a population growth model using a panel of 100 district-level observations on population for five consecutive censuses from 1891 to 1931, allowing for a one-time drop in population in 1918-1919. To estimate weekly excess mortality from the pandemic, we estimated a seasonally adjusted weekly time series of district-specific mortality estimates from vital registration records, ranked them, and plotted the ranks on weekly maps to create a picture of the geographic pattern of propagation across Sri Lanka.

resultsTotal loss of population from the influenza pandemic was 307 000 or approximately 6·7% of the population. The pandemic peaked in two discrete (northern and southern) regions in early October of 1918 and in a third (central) region in early March 1919.

conclusionsThe population loss estimate is significantly higher than earlier estimates of mortality from the pandemic in Sri Lanka, suggesting underreporting of influenza-attributable deaths and a role for influenza-related fertility declines. The spatial pattern of peak mortality indicates the presence of two distinct entry points and three distinct epidemiologic regions, defined by population density and ethnicity, in colonial Sri Lanka.

Indexed as

Age DistributionHistory, 20th CenturyHumansInfluenza A Virus, H1N1 SubtypeInfluenza, HumanPandemicsSeasonsSri Lanka1918-1919 influenza pandemicCeylonepidemicinfluenzaislandmortalityspreadSri Lanka

Identifiers

PMID24612961
PMCPMC4181474

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.