There is no decisive conclusion as to where the devastating Spanish Flu pandemic that killed from 20+ to 50 million people worldwide originated, but the preponderance of evidence points to Kansas, yes- Dorothy. The first recorded cases were at U.S. Army training camp, Ft. Funston, Kansas on March 11, 1918. In fact, it is believed that just prior to the outbreak at the crowded camp, deadly flu cases were reported in rural Haskell County, Kansas. By the spring of 1919, about a third of the world’s population was infected. The disease proved to have a high mortality rate amongst the very healthy youth and younger adults. Also, almost half of all deaths among the soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force was due to the pandemic!
So, you might ask, if the pandemic probably started in Kansas, why is it called the Spanish Flu? Since many of the world’s nations were at war, they were uninterested or unwilling to report the debilitating outbreak within their own borders due to political and military motivations. Spain, a neutral country, was accurately reporting the effects of the disease on their population. As a result, people started to associate the disease with the country, Spain!
Read more about this in my book, “The Reluctant Soldier”.
