The current Hong Kong flu is perilous, but by no means as deadly as the Spanish flu of 1918. At top, masked Chicago sanitation men are inspected during the height of the 1918 epidemic. Bottom, masked Red Cross workers are busy making gauze masks during the plague of Spanish flu. In 1918, the death toll across the world was 21 million. America listed its dead at 548,452.

United Press International · [ca. January 1968]

[Information from item housing] Influenza: 1918 Epidemic