The outbreak of this influenza virus, also known as Spanish flu, spread with astonishing speed around the world, overwhelming India, and reaching Australia and the remote Pacific islands.

As the world’s most infamous flu pandemic (often referred to as the Spanish flu) raged from 1918–1920, scientists had very few tools available to help them combat or understand the disease.

The influenza commonly called "Spanish flu" killed more people than the guns of World War I. Estimates put the worldwide death toll at 21,642,274. Some one billion people were affected by the ...