Once Upon a Time there was a little flu virus. It was probably born in Kansas in late 1917 or 1918, although nobody is really sure. Its name was H1N1. It grew up to be very wicked.
The story of the new strain of swine influenza now circling the world actually starts a lot farther back than the 20th century, but the year the "Spanish influenza" appeared is a good place to start.
From the second week in March 1918, when soldiers at an Army camp in Kansas began to get ill, until the final mini-waves of 1920, the Spanish flu infected about 97 percent of the people on Earth and killed at least 50 million of them.
The story of the new strain of swine influenza now circling the world actually starts a lot farther back than the 20th century, but the year the "Spanish influenza" appeared is a good place to start.
From the second week in March 1918, when soldiers at an Army camp in Kansas began to get ill, until the final mini-waves of 1920, the Spanish flu infected about 97 percent of the people on Earth and killed at least 50 million of them.
