in 1918 the disease was called the Spanish flu but it almost certainly didn't come from Spain one modern theory is especially shocking the disease that ravage the globe may have been born on the prairies of the Midwest there's a distinct possibility that actually started in western Kansas in February 1918 a doctor in Haskell County Kansas named Loring minor reported seeing a spike in patients with the flu Lauren minor will notice a population that he was served saying it was getting sick and very sick with influenza unlike any he had ever seen before he considered it so serious he felt the need to alert the US Public Health Service to this but the deaths in Kansas may not have been the first in January that year flu targeting young adults also hit the East Coast there was a late winter wave in New York City conceivably somebody from New York carried it to ASCO or could have gone the other way around or neither of those things we we just don't now luring minors warning from Kansas gets little attention seasonal flu is a contagious but common illness it was pretty much lost besides America has bigger conservatives previous spring in April 1917 the nation had declared war on Germany and joined World War one in Washington DC President Woodrow Wilson needs more troops as fast as possible John Barry believes that one of those new soldiers was an early carrier of the disease who may have helped spread it more widely his name Albert Kitchel the first identified patient to report sick was very early March 1918 he was a cook Albert Gitchell is a typical American Doble an ordinary enlisted man of every region of the country is producing soldiers for the war effort 20% of the soldiers are immigrants they speak proudly a hundred different languages in the military camps this is no real snapshot of where America is at that moment get your reports for duty at newly-created camp Funston in Kansas just hours away from the outbreak in Haskell County he's a member of the 164th Depot brigade supporting other recruits he puts his butcher skills to work feeding hungry mouths [Music] his job is basically to touch the food that hundreds or thousands of soldiers might eat on any given day with that March Gitchell Falls suddenly ill burning throat aching body fever 103 [Music] he lands in the infirmary within hours more than a hundred other soldiers report identical symptoms 46 men died it's a serious outbreak no one has any idea that the disease will soon steal across the United States and then what is happening on an army base in Kansas is about to bring the nation and the rest of the globe to its knees [Music] you