BY TOM MALONE
Though nobody knows for sure where it originated — theories are as varied as are the scientists and historians suggesting them (Chinese laborers, French birds, pigs from Kansas) — but early reports of the illness in late 1917 from the front lines in France and Germany were suppressed by the World War I Axis and Allies. Only neutral Spain allowed news coverage of this new disease, hence the nickname, the Spanish flu. It has been cited as the most devastating pandemic in recorded history. According to some estimates, more people died of influenza in a single year than in four years of the bubonic plague.
It was a global disaster, and those in power at the time decided that a p andemic of this proportion could not happen again. That said, diseases attributed to unhealthy living conditions, unsafe water, contaminated foods and ignorance of germs still claim millions of lives every year. This situation is made even worse during a disaster or emergency.