Flu viruses make people sick every year. Even a common flu can kill people, but usually only very young or very old people. In 1918 the flu transformed into something much more deadly. Infecting 500 million people and killing 50-100 million, the strain of that type of flu was accelerated by World War I, which increased the lethality of the virus, giving the flu many opportunities to spread during World War I. that the flu was spreading, science was not advanced enough to find a cure, and medical personnel were extremely helpless when it came to fighting the disease. Staff, however, discovered that the 1918 flu involved the H1N1 virus that kills through a cytokine storm (an overreaction of the body's immune system). No one is sure how the Spanish flu started or where it originated. Some researchers and scientists have pointed to its origins in China, while others say it originated in Kansas. The most common first case occurred at Fort Riley. Fort Riley, Kansas, was a military outpost where new recruits were trained before being sent to Europe to fight in World War I. On March 11, 1918, Private Albert Gitchell, who was a company cook, fell ill with symptoms that appeared to be a simple bad cold. Because of his symptoms, Gitchell went to get checked out in the infirmary. After being admitted to the infirmary, he was isolated. An hour after Gitchell's isolation, several other soldiers had exhibited the same symptoms as Gitchell and were also isolated (1). Even though the infirmary isolated everyone with those “bad cold” symptoms, this extremely contagious disease quickly spread through Fort Riley, with some type of flu suspected. Five weeks after these flu-like symptoms began in… middle of paper… thousands of humans. For four and a half years medical science was dedicated to putting men in the line of fire and keeping them there. Now it must dedicate itself with all its strength to the fight against the greatest enemy of communicable diseases" (2). People who were still healthy at the time of the epidemic had to isolate themselves from infected people in order to stay healthy, and people affected by the epidemic had to be isolated from everyone in order to have a better chance of recovering. It was a bad time to be here. No matter where a person went, there was always at least one person in the same place who was infected with the Spanish flu. After the epidemic ended, those who fought and made it to the end felt relieved that it was over, and those who died fought hard to stay alive, but were infected too badly to recover..