This Day in History: <br />First Cases Reported in <br />Deadly Influenza Pandemic March 11, 1918 Private Albert Glitchell <br />reported flu-like symptoms at <br />the Fort Riley hospital in Kansas. Hours later, <br />more than 100 soldiers on the <br />base would report symptoms. The virulent influenza would <br />spread to other army bases, prisons <br />and then across the Atlantic, where <br />World War I continued to rage. The virus came to be known as Spanish flu. <br />The influenza was responsible <br />for eight million deaths in Spain. Even after the end of the war, <br />Spanish flu continued to wreak international havoc. 28 percent of Americans <br />would become infected. 675,000 Americans died. Worldwide, deaths due <br />to the Spanish flu pandemic are <br />estimated between 20 and 50 million.
