Influenza has been around almost as long as people have walked the earth. Its roots draw back as far as 412 B.C., when a man named Hippocrates wrote of an uncontrollable outbreak of a disease that closely resembles influenza. This pandemic devastated an entire Athenian army, and has since occurred approximately every one hundred years (Persico 30). However, in 1918, influenza was somewhat different. It became popularly known as the Spanish influenza. This is slightly a misnomer because although it became widely known in Spain during the spring of 1918, it had been noticed on British army bases in France in 1917 (Carter 18). This new virus became extremely deadly in a short amount of time. Nobody could form a good reason as to why it had appeared. Sci

This new influenza baffled researchers and doctors everywhere. Up to this point, all viral diseases has spread prominently throughout heavily populated areas and into the lungs of the very young, very old, or sickly. On the contrary, the Influenza of 1918 swept through the Midwest and preyed on the young and healthy. There was virtually nothing that could stop it, and at one point, over ten percent of America's workforce was bedridden (Is Another...Soon?, 1997). One newspaper ran an article stating what people could do to prevent acquiring influenza. "Chew food carefully, avoid tight clothes, tight shoes, and tight gloves, and breathe as much fresh air as possible." Nothing worked (Persico 31). People walked through New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Tokyo with masks constructed of antiseptic white cotton over their mouths (Carter 19). Men were forced to line up before work each morning in order to get their throats sprayed with antiseptic in order to prevent the flu. While the war raged on, 2,700 men died in battle during a single week in October. That same week 21,000 Americans died of influenza in the United States (Persico 28). World War I took a total of 8.5 million lives during its entirety, but influenza eradicated more than 20 million. Nobody knows the true number, as many deaths were attributed to pneumonia, whooping cough, tuberculosis, and heart disease (Carter 19).

"Is another influenza pandemic coming soon?" Infectious Disease News. May 1997: SLACK Incorporated. 10Jan. 2001

This particular epidemic of influenza was proven to have existed before the breakout in Spain. It had made three waves during a two-year period. Each new assault became more infectious. Over twenty thousand people died in New York City alone, and the only country not affected, Australia, possesses strict quarantine regulations (Is another influenza pandemic coming soon?, 1997). The epidemic passed through army bases and boats among other countries before spreading through the United States. In fact, before influenza struck, it was ranked tenth behind heart disease, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and cancer. On August 12, 1918, Mrs. Olsen became the first person to die of influenza, beginning the killing streak that would make influenza the number one killer (Persico 30). It spread like wildfire, with one person falling ill, followed by another, 107 by afternoon, 522 by the end of the week, and 1,127 suffering with 46 dead five weeks later. Nevertheless, these occurred before influenza was discovered, and pneumonia was blamed for deaths (Persico 28).

The breakthroughs throughout the years all began with Professor Wilson Smith, Sir Christopher H. Andrews, and Sir P.P. Laidlaw in 1933. They were the first people to transmit the human influenza to other mammals, including ferrets (Kolata 287). They were followed almost two decades later by British researchers. These scientists discovered that the virus entered the lungs through the nasal passages in 1943 when the electron microscope was invented. They also s

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