Spread Of 1918 Flu Pandemic Explained

Science Daily ^ | 2-19-2008 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[BipolarBob]

The rapid spread was due to the ease of transmission from host to host. There were actually several waves of the Spanish flu that reverberated worldwide. Proper hygiene and isolation of the ill will mitigate the effects of the next inevitable outbreak. Let us hope politicians will not make a political case against isolation of the infected or we will be hopelessly overwhelmed.

[Lazamataz]

Huh? these mutations occurred spontaneously, what do you mean weaponize Avian flu?

How hard is it to make one of these minor genetic changes, manually?

I mean, weaponize Avian flu.

[expatguy]

The Bird Flu virus in Indonesia has killed now over 100 people.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[BluH2o]

One that seemed to carry a fair amount of weight was that the returning troops and refugees from WWI carried it home (thus having the outbreak appear at about the same time).

My grandmother (father's side) died as a result of the influenza pandemic October 19, 1918. This was just three weeks before the end of WWI on November 11, 1918. My father was five years old.

[Redcloak]

My understanding is that it arrived in the West from China. Here in the US, it got in to several Army training camps as the we were ramping up for WWI.

The young and healthy are hardest hit when their immune systems kick into overdrive fighting the virus. It’s that overreaction that eventually kills them; but, because they’re young and healthy, they run around spreading the virus before they finally collapse.

[Enchante]

My late beloved grandmother told a story of talking to the 5 year old boy next door through the window of his house one afternoon when he had just taken ill, and 24 hours later he was dead — it was an incredibly virulent and lethal disease for tens of millions.

[Nailbiter]

I cannot site the reference, but I believe returning troops from WWI.
I believe i read on FR about 2yrs back.

[KC Burke]

The “overdrive” reaction you refer to is called the Cytokine Storm and a good article in the New England Journal of Medicine about this feature that makes the healthy as much at risk of fatal outcome as the old and ill was discussed here a few years back.

The original article is below and is very informative as to why the virulant form is so fatal to large numbers and WHY WE DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING THAT FIGHTS THESE ISSUES TODAY, NO MORE THAN WE DID THEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/352/18/1839

[Redcloak]

The flu pandemic may have been why my grandfather moved the family out into the sticks in 1918. My dad’s earliest memory was the view from the back of the wagon as they left Texas for New Mexico when he was 4 years old.

[KC Burke]

I remember the thread but as was cited above, there has been some recent research to indicate that as it came by birds to various regions it came to be focused in soldiers and across Europe after gathering strength in training troops at Fort Riley, Kansas as our soldiers were going off to join the war already half over.

[jim_trent]

It didn’t.

I read a new book last year about the epidemic. The author plotted its travels. Seems that the initial infection was spread easily, but was not nearly as fatal as the later version. Interestingly, he thinks it started in a midwestern Army camp.

After it spread to Europe, it mutated into the largely fatal version and spread everywhere from there. It was spread quickly (as fast as trains or steamships could travel), but was not instantaneous.

[Moonman62]

I remember watching a special on the 1918 pandemic. I'm not sure any one theory has been proven correct. One that seemed to carry a fair amount of weight was that the returning troops and refugees from WWI carried it home (thus having the outbreak appear at about the same time).

I believe it started with a farm kid who caught it from birds on his farm (I think it was ducks). He went to a military base I believe in Kansas and that's where it spread. From there it spread around the world. The US government kept the origin secret and at the time and for many years it was known as the Spanish flu.

These days the flu almost always originates in China where people still let their farm birds and pigs live inside with them.

[Bigg Red]

My mother, who just passed away last year 2 months shy of her 95th birthday, remembered the 1918 pandemic well. Not only did she contract the flu, but she had to wait a year to enter her first year in school. All of the schools were closed because of the epidemic.

[wintertime]

ping

[redgolum]

WWI was a factor in the spread of the flu, but were it started is still very much up to debate. It is called the “Spanish flu” because Spain was neutral in the war, and since it didn’t have any censorship laws at the time they were the first to report of it.

Some theories have it starting in China, spreading into Russia and from there into Europe. Some have it starting in Kansas, and jumping to Canada and from there into Europe.

In short, we really don’t know.

[redgolum]

Well, it isn’t that easy actually. Doesn’t mean it is impossible, the the chance is that if you make the changes, it would change the morphology of the virus to make it pretty mild.

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl