Why 1918 flu was so deadly

He looked up the U. He turned to the almanac, and found about the same figure. Then Crosby picked up the almanac from The U. What happened was the influenza pandemic. A virus that usually does little more than make people feel awful for a few days killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, if not far more, with , people dying in the U.

The flu killed more people in a year than the bubonic plague killed in a century in the Middle Ages. Worst of all, this flu disproportionately took the lives of men and women in their 20s and 30s, while often sparing the very old and the very young—two population groups that are especially vulnerable to the flu in most years. This has confounded scientists for almost a century, but a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PNAS puts forward a fresh answer to one of the enduring mysteries of medical science.

Researchers led by Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona reconstructed the origins of the pandemic, concluding that the pathogen arose when an existing human H1 flu virus acquired genetic material from a bird flu virus.

Even the U. In April , shortly after arriving at the World War I peace negotiations in Paris, Woodrow Wilson became seriously ill with influenza-like symptoms. The White House covered up the severity of his condition, claiming Wilson had merely caught a cold from the rainy weather in Paris. Despite nearly derailing the talks, Wilson eventually fully recovered and returned to the U.

S that July. The mortality rate of the third wave was just as high as the second wave, but the end of the war removed the conditions that allowed the disease to spread so far and so quickly. Global deaths from the third wave, while still in the millions, paled in comparison to the apocalyptic losses during the second wave. See all pandemic coverage here. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV. Ironically, the first cases of Spanish flu were reported on March 4th, , at Fort Riley in Kansas by Army members, though the outbreak may have unofficially started in January.

Since large numbers of troops were being shipped out to Europe as the U. Rose Heichelbech. To receive email updates about this page, enter your email address: Email Address. What's this? Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website. Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.

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