Let’s hold our noses – flu caused the worst disaster in human history

On October 6 the city reported a record 289 deaths in a single day, but it soon got more than twice as bad. The following week one of the victims was my grandmother – who was in Pennsylvania on holidays at the time.

She was pregnant; the flu had a horrendous mortality rate among pregnant women. My father was only two years old at the time

THERE is considerable fear about swine flu at present, especially now that our health authorities are dealing with a probable first case here.