The Spanish Flu: The Twentieth Century's First Deadly Pandemic

The 1918 flu pandemic commonly referred to as the Spanish Flu, was an atypically lethal form of influenza the known effects of which lasted from June 1918 to December 1920, and spread across the entirety of the world–even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. Between 50 and 100 million people died from this flu, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.  Of unknown geographic origin, most victims of the so-called Spanish Flu were healthy young adults, in contrast to other influenza outbreaks throughout history which predominantly targeted juvenile, elderly, or weakened individuals. The Spanish Flu was also implicated in the subsequent outbreak of wide-spread encephalitis lethargica in the 1920s.  Read more . . .