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Article: Killer flu of 1918.(Time Trip)
- Article from:
- Current Events, a Weekly Reader publication
- Article date:
- September 23, 2005
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In 1918, a vicious strain of flu swept through the world--a flu so virulent that it killed more people than the guns of World War I (1914-1918) did. The disease struck suddenly and violently, wiping out babies in their cribs, old people in their beds, and young men and women in the prime of their lives. No one was safe.
Experts estimate that the worldwide death toll reached 20 million. Some 1 billion people contracted the disease--half the world's total population. The flu killed people on every continent except Antarctica.
Because Spain was the first country to report on the outbreak, the disease became known as the "Spanish flu." (The Spanish, ...