HJBR May/Jun 2020

36 MAY / JUN 2020 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE COLUMN NURSING As I write my column this month, the world is experiencing a health crisis not seen for the last 100 years, since the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918 is estimated to have infected as many as one billion people worldwide, with a death toll estimated at 40 million. 1 The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus COVID-19 dash- board reports that as of April 6, 2020, there are 1,289,380 confirmed cases worldwide, 337,971 of which are in the United States, and 13,010 of those are in Louisiana. As of this morning, April 6th, New Orleans has the highest death rate in the United States. 2 THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: LESSONS FROM THE FRONT