ABSTRACT
In this chapter we consider one of the most common
human diseases (Figure 6.1), but one which histori-
cally has posed one of the gravest threats to human-
ity. The tidal wave of influenza which circled the
world in the autumn of 1918 killed more people than
were lost in all the years of fighting during the Great
War (1914-18). The first estimates of population loss
made in the 1920s suggested that 21 million people
might have died. More recent research has moved
that figure up to nearer 50 million. The demographer,
Kingsley David, has suggested that India alone may
have lost 20 million to the disease.
