Solving the Mystery Flu That Killed 50 Million People

MoreCalifornia Bill Banning ‘Affluenza’ Defense Is Nixed7 Ebola Patients in Guinea Fight Off the Disease4 Diseases Making a Comeback Thanks to Anti-VaxxersYears ago the environmental historian Alfred Crosby was at Washington State University, where he was teaching at the time, when on a whim he decided to pick up an old almanac from 1917. (This is apparently the kind of thing historians like to do in their spare time.) He looked up the U.S. life expectancy in that year—it was about 51 years. He turned to the 1919 almanac, and found about the same figure. Then Crosby picked up the almanac from 1918. The U.S. life expectancy in 1918 had fallen to 39 years. “What the hell happened?” Crosby told the New York Times writer Gina Kolata in her book Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918. “ The life expectancy had dropped to what it had been fifty years before.” MoreMumps Outbreak Reported at University of IllinoisAlmost Half of Homeless Men Had a Previous Brain InjuryMen Charged With Toppling Ancient Rock Formation Avoid Jail Time Huffington PostHere's An Updated Tally Of All The People Who Have Ever Died From A Marijuana Overdose Huffington PostTony Awards 2014: Neil Patrick Harris, Bryan Cranston, Chris O'Dowd Score Nods PeopleWhat happened was the 1918 influenza pandemic. A virus that usually does little more than make people feel awful for a few days killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, if not far more, with 650,00...
Source: TIME: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized 1918 pandemic avian flu bird flu death rates H1N1 H5N1 H7N9 health immune system influenza Spanish flu Source Type: news