There is a bevy of work about The Great Flu Pandemic of 1918, a plague that raced around the world killing 50 million. Don't know how many "name" writers of the time addressed the issue, but I recall a particulalry gut-wrenching journalisitic account of the pandemic in Philadelphia, the day to day fear and how they were literally piling the bodies in the streets. People tend to overlook this horrible plague due to the shadow of WWI.