The Devil's Flu: The World's Deadliest Influenza Epidemic and the Scientific Hunt for the Virus That Caused It

A gripping account of the 1918 flu pandemic and the modern-day hunt for this elusive and deadly virus. In 1918 a flu virus more lethal than any that has come along since swept through the world from the remotest villages in Arctic climates to crowded U.S.cities to the battlefields of Europe killing forty million people. Yet despite its devastating toll and the probability that other deadly pandemics await on the horizon it was relegated to a footnote in history. The Devils Flu is the extraordinary story of 1918s forgotten tragedy and of the global scientific communitys effort to avert another such disaster.. The 1918 flu still so intrigues and frightens experts in the field that in 1998 a group of respected scientists journeyed to the Norwegian Arctic Circle in search of the mysterious killer. In The Devils Flu Davies captures the excitement of the hunt and the intense rivalries within the scientific community and paints a vivid portrait of the eccentric scientists bent on capturing the prize information that could hold the key to our future safety. And as far as the next pandemic is concerned scientists agree: its not a question of if but when.