THE 1918 influenza pandemic may have hit New York five months earlier than previously thought.
The origin of the pandemic virus, which eventually killed more than 40 million people worldwide, remains elusive. But the discovery of a limited outbreak in New York in March 1918, before the main outbreak in September, suggests we may get an early warning of future pandemics.
Donald Olson of the New York City Department of Health analysed death records in the city looking for the telltale signature of the 1918 pandemic – an unusually heavy toll among young people, rather than the elderly, who are…
