The first - and until now only - time I came across that 'grim little ditty' was in LeTourneau's autobiography "Mover of Men and Mountains".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pY8hllCePA gives an example of how children might chant it as they skip rope.

Strange that no one brings the recent H1N1, maybe because it was a fail at trying to produce mass histeria?.