CLEP US History II

Answer: B - An aggressive strain of influenza broke out in the United States in 1918, immediately after the end of World War I. It quickly spread to every inhabited continent, infecting more than one-fourth of the human race and claiming the life of one person for every nine infected. The disease benefitted from many wartime qualities: close troop quarters at home and abroad, limited early medical care for servicemen and civilians, and widespread malnourishment in Europe. Even in the United States, which was not as severely impacted by the war as Europe, 500,000 to 675,000 people died. The illness is sometimes called the “Spanish flu pandemic” because it affected Spain so severely.