<br>This flu was most deadly for those in the healthy age groups, between 20-40 where most flu deaths occur in the elderly or the very young. The effect of the influenza epidemic was so severe that the average life span in the US was depressed by 10 years. The influenza virus had a profound virulence, with a mortality rate at 2.5% compared to the previous influenza epidemics, which were less than 0.1%. <ref>1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics: Jeffery Taubenberge, David Morens [http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no01/05-0979.htm] </ref> | <br>This flu was most deadly for those in the healthy age groups, between 20-40 where most flu deaths occur in the elderly or the very young. The effect of the influenza epidemic was so severe that the average life span in the US was depressed by 10 years. The influenza virus had a profound virulence, with a mortality rate at 2.5% compared to the previous influenza epidemics, which were less than 0.1%. <ref>1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics: Jeffery Taubenberge, David Morens [http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol12no01/05-0979.htm] </ref> |