The 1918 flu pandemic erupted just as World War I was ending, though they are linked like a double helix of war and disease.
Although referred to as the "Spanish flu," the pandemic had nothing to do with Spain, though it did make the Spanish king, Alfonso XIII, very sick. The pandemic was completely unexpected; targeted healthy, young adults; infected more than a billion people worldwide and killed between 50 and 100 million of them from remote tropical islands all the way to the Arctic. Adjusted for population, that would equal between 220 and 430 million people today.
Then it vanished...
Because the 1918 flu began during World War I, reports of illness and mortality were embargoed in countries such as the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and France, as it was believed that news of illness and death not part of the war would be detrimental to the war effort. (Neutral Spain didn't partake in such censorship and was rewarded by having a pandemic bear its name.) This allowed the flu to spread rapidly since few knew to take precautions in order to stop it. By the time it finally made headlines, the disease was on a rampage.
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