Boston (SmartAboutHealth) - The deadly 1918 Spanish flu pandemic has been blamed mainly on a new group of genes discovered by researchers.

The 1918 flu pandemic was a disaster to say the least as over 500 million people were infected, with at least 30 million dying from it.

A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison analyzed the flu and managed to discover a group of genes linked to it.

These genes reportedly made the virus even more deadly and caused many more deaths.

The hope is that they can take this research and use it to develop new anti-viral treatments to better respond to potential future pandemics.