Plague on the western front.

The 1918 influenza outbreak was the worst pandemic in world history. It swept around the world three times, and unlike previous influenza pandemics it was especially dangerous to young adults. The source of the outbreak has never been definitely established but it has been assumed that it began in an army training camp in the U.S. Certainly, its arrival in Britain coincided with the arrival of U.S. troops. However, Prof. John Oxford (Royal London Hospital) believes that this strain of influenza was already long established and that it mutated and gathered strength due to a combination of circumstances. It found its first opportunity through a new breeding ground, the army transit camp at Etaples in northern France. Here, a constantly shifting population of servicemen, bound for destinations all over Europe, lived in crowded conditions at close quarters with livestock - ducks, chickens and pigs - kept to feed the camp. This would have given an animal virus the chance to mutate and attack humans. Prof. Oxford discovered a paper written on an unidentified illness which appeared at the camp, called purulent bronchitis whose symptoms match those of the influenza pandemic.