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/* The Great Influenza, or "Spanish flu" */
== The Great Influenza, or "Spanish flu" ==
In 1918 -- during the final months of World War I -- there was an outbreak of the flu worldwide which killed an estimated 50 million people, far more than died from battles in the war. This particular strain of the flu (a synonym for influenza) was highly fatal, killing perhaps 10% of everyone who caught it which is much higher than most flu casualty rates. Today the flu does take the life of tens of thousands of elderly people each year, but this so-called Spanish flu in 1918 claimed the lives of young and otherwise healthy people, and killed more soldiers than the battles did. Its name is a misnomer: it is unlikely that this flu in 1918 originated in Spain, and it may have begun in China. The French called it the Spanish flu because the King of Spain contracted it, but so did President Woodrow Wilson and millions of others.
The outbreak caused panic in many American cities and overwhelmed the resources of hospitals. It is the worst pandemic of a disease in modern history, and perhaps ever. Yet it is often missing from history books and many people today do not know anything about it.
