Spanish flu

The Spanish flu pandemic lasted from February 1918 to April 1920. It infected 500 million people, about a third of the world’s population. The death toll is typically estimated to have been somewhere between 17 million and 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million. Malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps and hospitals, and poor hygiene, all exacerbated by the recent war, promoted bacterial...