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t a time when the world was much less connected than it is now, then Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) was not spared by the Spanish Flu pandemic of the early 19th century, researchers said Friday.

Spanish Flu infected more than 500 million people and killed 20-40 million. It killed more people than any other pandemic in recorded history.

University of Indonesia (UI) historian Kresno Brahmantyo said the preliminary findings of the research, which began earlier this year, were expected to help medical and non-medical sectors prevent the spread of H1N1-A (also referred to as "swine flu"), which is currently spreading around the world.

"We hope to contribute to the preventive efforts because from our findings we can learn from the past and we want to prove that influenza pandemics did not only affect far-away lands," Kresno said, adding that the group credited their findings to prominent historian Collin Brown, the author of Influenza Pandemic 1918 in Indonesia.

Shadowed by the mysteries left by the 1918 pandemic, the World Health Organization announced last week that the world is facing the beginning of a global pandemic of the H1N1-A virus.

First detected in Mexico City in March, the disease, with symptoms resembling a common cold, has now claimed 167 lives in 74 countries, including Indonesia's closest neighbors Singapore and Malaysia. Indonesia, hardest hit by bird flu (the H5N1 virus), has recorded no H1N1 cases to date.

Kresno said most of the facts the group had analyzed were researched from old archives of staatsblad (state papers or legislation), correspondences and journals published by Dutch colonial government officials, physicians and missionaries.

"We were surprised with the findings because we found another interesting fact that long before 1918 the colonial administration had already reported influenza cases in Ambon in 1852. This is not mentioned in Collin Brown's book," he said.

The Ambon cases were recorded in an 1891 medical journal, Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indie Deel.

"The journal says the virus initially affected indigenous peoples but later was found among European military personnel stationed in Ambon," Kresno said.

Influenza cases were also reported to have infected Dutch troops sent to Muara Teweh (Central Kalimantan) and those stationed in Padang Panjang (West Sumatra) in 1890. More evidence, however, is needed to confirm whether the 18th century influenza is related to the 1918 virus, he said.

Unlike the Ambon cases, there was a different pattern in the spread of the disease in 1918, Kresno said. The initial cases were reported from military personnel coming off ships from Europe.

There was also a copy of a wired telegram signed by the Dutch Consulate General in Singapore, warning Batavia (now Jakarta) to prohibit ships from Hong Kong that were feared to be carrying infected crews.