In the 1970s physicians began to recognize a pathological process in the lungs that could have many causes but, once the process began, looked the same and received the same treatment. They called it ARDS, which stands for acute respiratory distress syndrome. Almost anything that puts extreme stress on the lung can cause ARDS: near drowning, smoke inhalation, inhaling toxic fumes (or poison gas) . . . or influenzal viral pneumonia. Doctors today looking at pathology reports of lungs in 1918 would immediately designate the condition as ARDS.
