Archive for March 4th, 2021

FIRST CASES OF DEADLY FLU ON THIS DAY IN 1918

Soldiers from Fort Riley, Kansas, ill with Spanish flu at a hospital ward at Camp Funston
Soldiers from Fort Riley, Kansas, ill with Spanish flu at a hospital
ward at Camp Funston.

Just before breakfast on the morning of March 4, Private Albert Gitchell of the
U.S. Army reports to the hospital at Fort Riley, Kansas, complaining of the cold-
like symptoms of sore throat, fever and headache. Soon after, over 100 of his
fellow soldiers had reported similar symptoms, marking what are believed to
be the first cases in the historic influenza
pandemic of 1918, later known as
Spanish flu. The flu would eventually kill 675,000 Americans and an estimated
20 million to 50 million people around the world, proving to be a far deadlier
force than even the
First World War.


A nurse treating a patient in Washington, DC.

posted by Bob Karm in ANNIVERSARY,Flu pandemic,HISTORY,Medicine,MILITARY and have No Comments