For those of you young, healthy adults making serious comparisons to the Spanish flu

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Before and after 1918, most influenza pandemics developed in Asia and spread from there to the rest of the world, but not the Spanish flu.

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In contrast, age-specific death rates in the 1918 pandemic exhibited a distinct pattern that has not been documented before or since. Influenza and pneumonia death rates for those 15–34 years of age in 1918–1919, for example, were >20 times higher than in previous years. Overall, nearly half of the influenza-related deaths in the 1918 pandemic were in young adults 20–40 years of age, a phenomenon unique to that pandemic year. The 1918 pandemic is also unique among influenza pandemics in that absolute risk of influenza death was higher in those <65 years of age than in those >65; persons <65 years of age accounted for >99% of all excess influenza-related deaths in 1918–1919.

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Subsequent research indicates that descendants of the 1918 virus still persists enzootically in pigs.

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