Created by a class of college students at Wayne State University, this well-curated site explores the outbreak of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, a global catastrophe that infected a fifth of the world's population. After reading the excellent introduction, readers will likely wish to make their way through all four themes on the site. The first theme, The Flu Strikes: 1918, covers the outbreak, symptoms, and etiology of the "Spanish Flu." Next, the Impact of the Flu traces how the disease impacted doctors, hospitals, and entire communities. The third theme, The Military Fights the Flu, provides an overview of how U.S. military forces balanced the need to care for ill soldiers with the necessities of fighting a trench war. Last, the Legacy of the Pandemic provides insight into how the 1918 outbreak impacted medicine and policy. Photographs, contemporary reports, and medical articles accompany each thematic section, helping round out this moment in American and global history.
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