Spanish Flu and the cytokine storm

It appears that Swine Flu may well be a descendant of the 1918 Spanish Flu, arguably the most deadly and virulent flu outbreak in history, and one that killed an estimated 50 million people:

en.wikipedia.org...

The main killing mechanism was referred to as a "cytokine storm" which is essentially an uncontrolled stimulation of the bodies defences in a localized area resulting in death.

This was one reason that the young and healthy (20 to 45) were so badly affected, because their immune systems were the strongest, and we are seeing that exact same trend with the Swine Flu outbreak.

Arguably the most interesting thing about Spanish Flu, was the fact that is broke out in multiple places around the world almost to the exact same day in 1918, and all that in a world where rapid international travel simply wasn't available (unlike today).

If this IS a derivative of Spanish Flu as has been alleged, that coupled with our ability to travel internationally very quickly and in large numbers, this thing could start killing again on the same massive scale as its predecessor.