As the nation mobilized for war in the spring of 1918, ailing Private Albert Gitchell reported to an army hospital in Kansas. He was diagnosed with the flu, a disease about which doctors knew little. Before the year was out, America would be ravaged by a flu epidemic that killed 675,000 people--more than died in all the wars of this century combined--before disappearing as mysteriously as it began.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
HITTING HOME HARD! This is an incredible DVD! I had known that my grandfather died of the "flu" in 1918...but never realized the full impact of this! He was only 29 years old. Now, having a 29 year old son & threat of a pandemic H1H1 flu, I became interested in this mysterious & deadly pandemic of the past.
Although it is very sad & painful to watch in parts, you will be sitting on the edge of your seat watching this. It is amazing that so MANY people are no longer aware of this tragedy. It prompted me to... more info
fine documentary of the 1918 influenza epidemic This documentary gives us an excellent account of the 1918 flu epidemic that came upon us quite mysteriously and always eluded the best efforts of medicine and science to cure people afflicted with it or inoculate those who were still well. The archival footage and the still photos from that era are very, very good; and the interviews with now elderly survivors of the epidemic are so well done that they truly bring this horrible nightmare to vivid life in all its grotesqueness. The story moves along at a... more info
Haunting This 50-minute video packs in a lot of facts about this event that keeps one wondering when another pandemic of such a caliber could strike again. We were a developing country with a lead in science. We had discovered the cure for polio, cholera, diphtheria. We were sure we could fight any other diseases that came our way. We were wrong. This strain struck our soldiers at Fort Riley toward the end of WWI. Soldiers were falling ill fast from this virus and doctors had no idea what was killing... more info
Influenza 1918 Excellent film. Real history of those terrible days both overseas and here at home. This was personal for me because my father was in World War 1 at this time and got the flu in France. He was shipped back home and recuperated in a hospital in New York.
