Theories About Source
Investigative work by a British team led by virologist John Oxford of St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Royal London Hospital, almost certainly identified a major troop staging and hospital camp in Étaples, France was at the center of the 1918 flu pandemic. A significant precursor virus was harbored in birds, and mutated to pigs that were kept near the front.
Earlier theories of the epidemic's origin have varied. Some theorized the flu originated in the Far East. Dr. C. Hannoun, leading expert of the 1918 flu for the Institut Pasteur, asserted the former virus was likely to have come from China, mutated in the United States near Boston, and spread to Brest, Brittany-France, Europe's battlefields, Europe, and the world using Allied soldiers and sailors as main spreaders. Hannoun considered several other theories of origin, such as Spain, Kansas, and Brest, as being possible, but not likely.
Historian Alfred W. Crosby speculated the flu originated in Kansas. Popular writer John Barry echoed Crosby in describing Haskell County, Kansas as the likely point of origin.
Political scientist Andrew Price-Smith published data from the Austrian archives suggesting the influenza had earlier origins, beginning in Austria in the spring of 1917.
Read more about this topic: 1918 Flu Pandemic
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