Mortality per week from Paris, Munich Berlin, London and New York. The peak is attributed to the flu.
The Spanish Flu (also known as the Great Influenza Pandemic Flu Epidemic of 1918, The Nightmare and the mother) was an influenza pandemic of unprecedented severity, caused by an outbreak of Influenza A subtype H1N1 virus that killed between 50 and 100 million people around the world between 1918 and 1919. is believed to have been one of the most deadly pandemics in human history. Many of its victims were healthy young adults and, unlike other epidemics of flu that affect children, elderly or debilitated people.
The disease was first observed at , Kansas, United States on March 11, 1918. A researcher says that the disease appeared in Haskell County, Kansas in January 1918. The Allies of World War I was called Spanish flu because the pandemic received greater press attention in Spain than in the rest of world, because Spain was not involved in the war and therefore do not censor information about the disease.
Scientists have used tissue samples from frozen victims to reproduce the virus for study. Given the extreme virulence of the outbreak and the possibility of accidental escape (or release) of the quarantine, there is some controversy regarding the benefits of these investigations. One of the conclusions of the research was that the virus kills because of a cytokine storm, which explains the extremely serious nature and the limited common age profile of the victims..