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When the "war to end all wars" came to a close in 1918, the haggard armies looked forward to going home to recover from the grim realities of life in muddy, rat infested trenches. Instead, along with civilian populations, they faced the deadliest pandemic in history—the 1918 influenza epidemic, the Spanish Flu. By the time the "Spanish lady" departed, 22 million people had died of the mysterious killer.

In 1918, there was little understanding of viruses and covering one’s face with a handkerchief was hardly a barrier to the deadly visitor. Today, while we know much more about flu strains like the "influenza A virus" pictured here and have even developed fairly successful vaccines, we know relatively little about the strain that brought so much suffering to the war weary world. Positively identifying the 1918 flu strain is made more difficult by the fact that the flu virus is capable of very rapid mutations and, obviously enough, there just aren’t many good samples of the Spanish flu virus hobbling around these days.

Based on recent studies, scientists have revised some of their past assumptions. Initially, it was believed that the deadly bug originated in birds and was then transferred to pigs and humans. Studies based on samples from bodies exhumed from Norwegian permafrost, suggest that the virus was a new strain resembling the influenza A virus (see photo). This finding suggests that the virus actually developed in pigs, not birds, and was subsequently transferred to humans with devastating results.

As scientists continue the painstaking process of studying nearly 100 year old DNA, we may learn much more about the most deadly killer of all time.

Image by Dr. Erskine Palmer and courtesy of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention.


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			The Spanish Lady When the "war to end all wars" came to a close in 1918, the haggard armies looked forward to going home to recover from the grim realities of life in muddy, rat infested trenches. Instead, along with civilian populations, they faced the deadliest pandemic in history—the 1918 influenza epidemic, the Spanish Flu. By the time the "Spanish lady" departed, 22 million people had died of the mysterious killer. In 1918, there was little understanding of viruses and covering one’s face with a handkerchief was hardly a barrier to the deadly visitor. Today, while we know much more about flu strains like the "influenza A virus" pictured here and have even developed fairly successful vaccines, we know relatively little about the strain that brought so much suffering to the war weary world. Positively identifying the 1918 flu strain is made more difficult by the fact that the flu virus is capable of very rapid mutations and, obviously enough, there just aren’t many good samples of the Spanish flu virus hobbling around these days. Based on recent studies, scientists have revised some of their past assumptions. Initially, it was believed that the deadly bug originated in birds and was then transferred to pigs and humans. Studies based on samples from bodies exhumed from Norwegian permafrost, suggest that the virus was a new strain resembling the influenza A virus (see photo). This finding suggests that the virus actually developed in pigs, not birds, and was subsequently transferred to humans with devastating results. As scientists continue the painstaking process of studying nearly 100 year old DNA, we may learn much more about the most deadly killer of all time. Image by Dr. Erskine Palmer and courtesy of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention.