This Day in History: , First Cases Reported in
Deadly Influenza Pandemic.
March 11, 1918.
Private Albert Glitchell
reported flu-like symptoms at
the Fort Riley hospital in Kansas.
Hours later,
more than 100 soldiers on the
base reported symptoms.
The virulent influenza
spread to other army bases, prisons
and then across the Atlantic, where
World War I continued to rage.
The virus came to be known as Spanish flu.
The influenza was responsible
for eight million deaths in Spain.
Even after the end of the war,
Spanish flu continued to wreak international havoc.
28 percent of Americans
became infected. 675,000 Americans died.
Worldwide, deaths due
to the Spanish flu pandemic are
estimated between 20 and 50 million
