University of Minnesota. Students' Health Service

The Students' Health Service at the University of Minnesota was officially organized in 1917 and opened in 1918 on the Minneapolis campus in two fraternity houses vacated during World War I. Additional dormitory space was also provided for the health service on the Agriculture campus.

In the fall of 1918, Spanish influenza struck the University of Minnesota as a result of the influx of students in the Student Army Training Corps. This occurred during the first weeks of the opening of the new health service, taxing its personnel and facilities. 2,000 cases of influenza were reported and twenty deaths occurred. Influenza struck again in 1919-1920. Forty-three cases of smallpox were reported in 1920-1921 leading to a campaign of small-pox vaccinations for students and prompted epidemiological studies with the aid of the state Department of Health. Paratyphoid fever cases that same year proved to result from milk contaminated by an infected employee, leading to the use of only pasteurized milk in sealed bottles.

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