Several people also vomited. Eventually, some of the sailors had unusual skin color, some had blue lips or fingertips, and a few were so black that it was impossible to tell whether he was white or black. They look almost black.

The patients lying in the courtyard confused Paul Rogard and made him break out in a cold sweat, and the disease had spread explosively.

There were no more empty beds in the hospital, and the Navy sent hundreds of more ailing sailors to the Civic Hospital in Philadelphia, where sailors and Civic Hospital staff began to shuttle between the Navy base and the city. At the same time, patients began to be sent across the country......

Paul Rogard argues that it is a form of influenza, although it is not the same as all the flu previously known.

There is no conclusive evidence that the flu virus was brought to Forston Barracks by someone from Haskell County, Kansas, but there is strong circumstantial evidence. In the last week of February 1918, Nelson of Haskell County, among others, who may not have been named in the local newspaper, were drafted into the army and marched from Haskell, where the "severe flu" was spreading, to Forston Barracks.

They probably arrived between 28 February and 2 March, and the first time the military hospital began admitting soldiers with influenza was 4 March. This period coincides with the incubation period of influenza. Within three weeks, 1,100 people in Forston were seriously ill and needed to be hospitalized.

Two weeks after the first case in Foston, on March 18, Forrest Barracks and Greenleaf Barracks in Georgia also showed signs of a flu attack, with 10 percent of soldiers in both barracks on sick leave. Then, like dominoes that have been toppled, other barracks have also had outbreaks of flu.

That spring, 24 of the 36 largest barracks experienced the devastation of the flu. Thirty of the country's 55 largest cities also suffered a black April as the number of "excess deaths" due to flu peaked.

But the epidemic, like dominoes, spread rapidly to the world.

After the outbreak hit the nation, epidemiologists began to investigate the health records of the U.S. military and civilians to find any signs of unusual flu activity that preceded the outbreak in Fouston, but they found nothing. France had several local outbreaks of influenza in the winter, but they did not spread, and were endemic rather than epidemic.

The first unusual flu outbreak in Europe occurred in early April in Brest, where American troops landed. The command of the French Navy in Brest was suddenly paralyzed. The outbreak spread rapidly from Brest to the surrounding areas.

The first case appeared in the French army on 10 April. The flu hit Paris at the end of April, and around the same time, the outbreak spread to Italy. The first case in the British army occurred in mid-April, followed by an outbreak of disease. In May, 36,473 people were hospitalized in the First Army alone, with tens of thousands of patients with milder symptoms. In June, when the army returned from continental Europe, it brought the disease to Britain. In late April, the German army also had an outbreak of influenza.

At the same time, the virus gained its name in Spain. In fact, there weren't many cases in Spain before May, but Spain was a neutral country during the war, which meant that the government didn't censor the news, unlike French, German and British newspapers, which don't publish any negative, morale-damaging news, and Spanish newspapers were flooded with reports of illness, especially after King Alfonso XIII also fell ill with a severe flu.

Soon, the disease became known as the "Spanish flu" or "Spanish flu", most likely because only Spanish newspapers published about the spread of the disease, which originated in other countries.

The flu hit Portugal, followed by Greece. In June and July, mortality rates in England, Scotland and Wales skyrocketed. Germany initially saw only a few sporadic cases in June, and soon the epidemic swept across the country. Outbreaks occurred in Denmark and Norway in July. By August, the Netherlands and Sweden were also in the air.

The flu arrived in Shanghai near the end of May. "It swept across the country like a tsunami," one observer said. ”

According to rumors, half of Chongqing fell ill. This was followed by the flu struck New Zealand and Australia in September, with Sydney accounting for 30 percent of the city's population.

During a disease outbreak in France, 613 American soldiers were hospitalized and only one person died. Of the 40,000 admitted to the hospital by the French army, less than 100 died. The British fleet had 10,313 sailors who fell ill, and although the navy was temporarily weakened, only four sailors died. The soldiers called it "three days of fever". But the disease may not always be as mild, and when it comes out, it's unusually severe — more severe than measles.

The flu count in Louisville, Kentucky, is a frightening anomaly. Louisville's mortality rate is not low, and what is even more surprising is that 40 of the dead are between the ages of 20 and 35, and a statistical anomaly has appeared. In late May, 688 people in a small recruit station of 1,018 people in France were seriously ill and hospitalized, and 49 died. 5 of the population – especially healthy young people – are dying in just a few weeks, frighteningly!

Between June 1 and August 1, 1.2 million of the 2 million British soldiers stationed in France were struck down by the disease. Then, the disease disappeared. On 10 August, British commanders declared that the epidemic was no longer spreading. On August 20, a British medical journal commented that the flu epidemic was "completely gone." However, the virus has not gone away. It just dives underground, like a forest fire that burns at the roots of a tree, slowly changing, waiting for an opportunity to rekindle.

On June 30, 1918, the British cargo ship "Exeter City" docked at the Philadelphia dock after a short stop at the customs quarantine station. Deadly diseases followed. Although the ship was not detained, the condition of the crew was so appalling that the British consul had to arrange for the ship to dock at a vacant dock where ambulances were on standby and the drivers wore surgical masks. Crew members are dying one after another, and the number is increasing day by day. They appeared to have died of pneumonia, but according to a Pennsylvania medical student, pneumonia was just a complication, based on some strange symptoms, including nosebleeds.

All infectious diseases of 1918 were frightening.

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