One of the largest killers in the history of the United States and of the world is Influenza virus. On of the largest epidemics in history occurred in 1918, the deadly disease spread like a wild fire through America and eventually the whole world. Unlike most other ailments, influenza, even today, has no definite cure.
To this day we cannot accurately determine the birthplace of the influenza disease, but we do know that there have been 31 epidemics dating back as far as the 16 century. One of the most devastating epidemics of influenza originated in the United States in 1918. This pandemic claimed the lives of approximately 600,000 Americans, and between twenty and thirty million worldwide. The epidemic of 1918, which originated in the U.S., is said to have started on March 9, 1918 in Fort Riley, Kansas during a large dust storm. Fort Riley, which housed 26,000 soldiers, reported the first case of influenza on the morning of March 11, and by noon over one hundred soldiers were in the infirmary. From there the "flu" spread quickly infecting other military camps as well as prisons other crowded populations. Victor Vaughan, former president of the American Medical Association, was sent to Camp Devens out side of Boston where he witnessed, "The saddest part of my life I saw hundreds of young stalwart men in uniform coming into the wards of the hospital. Every bed was full, yet others crowded in. The faces wore a bluish cast; a cough brought up the bloodstained sputum." The epidemic then spread overseas with the American troops where it rapidly spread across Europe and eventually as far as China and Japan. .
The origins of the 1918 epidemic of influenza have never been identified. One of the most accepted rumors involved the Germans. Since the pandemic started during the First World War many people pointed their fingers towards German spies, who presumably released the disease upon the Boston Harbor.
