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This link will take you to a full article (not pay-walled) on the Spanish flu pandemic, which may have originated in China as avian or swine flu, but erupted in a virulent way during and after World War I.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/wwwnc.cdc.gov\/eid\/article\/12\/1\/05-0979_article<\/a><\/p>\n From the article: “The impact of this pandemic was not limited to 1918\u20131919. All influenza A pandemics since that time, and indeed almost all cases of influenza A worldwide (excepting human infections from avian viruses such as H5N1 and H7N7), have been caused by descendants of the 1918 virus, including “drifted” H1N1 viruses and reassorted H2N2 and H3N2 viruses. The latter are composed of key genes from the 1918 virus, updated by subsequently incorporated avian influenza genes that code for novel surface proteins, making the 1918 virus indeed the “mother” of all pandemics.”<\/p>\n Prior to World War I, the causes of influenza were unknown. There were no separate strain names for the various types, such as swine flu or bird flu. Anyone could catch a “congestion of the lungs” and subsequently die of pneumonia after recovering from the “congestion”. \u00a0There were no vaccines for it or anything else back then.<\/p>\n The post-war flu pandemic resulted in 50 million to 150 million deaths worldwide, although there was no actual census count. But we had another serious scare in 2006. Remember the bird flu pandemic? The research for the 2006 pandemic had already started at CDC in 1995, with researchers reconstructing the virus’s structure from autopsied materials left over from WWI and the Spanish Flu pandemic. \u00a0Shortly after that, the 1997 H5N1 avian influenza A pandemic broke out in Hong Kong. The finding that H1N1’s descendants include swine flu and avian flu RNA resulted in corporations like the one I worked for at the time offering flu and pneumonia vaxes while at work, for a modest fee.<\/p>\n