Despite its positive economic and social impacts on Columbia, not all of what Camp Jackson brought to the area was welcome.  Some citizens worried over soldiers introducing diseases into the community.  In order to alleviate some of these concerns, the government attempted to regulate the city’s food markets and closed known places of prostitution.  Despite this, a meningitis outbreak occurred at the installation in late November 1917, and Camp Jackson and Columbia were beset with the global Spanish influenza pandemic during the fall of 1918 .  Approximately 5,000 of Camp Jackson’s soldiers were treated for the illness; 300 died.  During the epidemic, Columbia enforced a strict quarantine of public gathering spaces and churches, schools, theaters, and soda fountains were closed for one month in order to stop the rapid spread of the disease. 

The influenza outbreak did not discriminate against its victims and many people of all races, classes, and ages became deathly ill.  Today, many graves within Columbia cemeteries recall the story of the disastrous month of October 1918.  The quarantine in Columbia was lifted on November 4, 1918. The Columbia Record described the return to normal life with a hint of fatalism, writing “were it not for the many newly made graves in the cemeteries of the city it might be possible to forget that the dreadful epidemic had ever visited us.”