Fast and DEADLY; SORE THROAT AT BREAKFAST..DEAD BY TEATIME.. HOW THE LAST FLU PANDEMIC KILLED 40 MILLION.(News)

Byline: MATT ROPER

IT was the most devastating outbreak of disease in history.

Over a billion people - half the world's population at the time - fell ill in 1918 as the dreaded Spanish flu swept around the globe.

By the time the killer virus died out a year later, an estimated 40 million people had lost their lives.

That is five times as many as the eight million killed in four years of slaughter during the First World War.

The 1918 flu pandemic caused death and devastation on an unimaginable scale and at terrifying speed.

Those who were hearty and healthy at breakfast could be dead by teatime.

And today, 91 years later, we face dire warnings of an outbreak of similar or even worse proportions.

As the first case of the Mexican swine flu was confirmed in Europe, the World Health Organisation yesterday warned that the virus could quickly spread into a deadly …