Posted on 11/29/2006 12:00:07 PM PST by SunkenCiv
With a fast-striking and deadly reach that spanned the globe, the worst influenza outbreak of the 20th century is more than a sepia-toned and horrific sidebar of history. It is also a harbinger for a future influenza disaster that medical researchers say is inevitable and long overdue, a grisly example of the worst nature has to offer... Mabel Allen Boyd was one of at least 13,703 North Carolinians killed by this hyper-lethal flu virus, a mutation that still baffles modern-day scientists. Eighty-eight years after her death, she is still the face of the Spanish flu pandemic for Leon Spencer, 101, who lives in the Whitaker Glen retirement community near Five Points in Raleigh... "I was kindly stunned because she was almost like a family member," said Spencer, who was 13 in that deadly fall of 1918... For almost every North Carolinian buried by this remorseless killer, there was a parent or orphan, a spouse or sibling -- a loved one left behind, stunned by immediate grief and saddled with the long-running guilt of a survivor.
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The 1918 flu fatalities showed at least one of the symptoms as ebola fatalities, coughing up blood, from lung hemorrhages. Some of my older relatives remembered the events quite well (born in the 1890s) but none of them mentioned anyone they'd known dying of it. They lived in a rural area though.
That doesn't sound familiar, but wouldn't explain how the flu was (like influenza each year) all over the world pretty much simultaneously. Flu is not host-dependent or whatever, it does jump from species to species. The reason we have vaccine in the US is that the strains are isolated from Chinese strains. If memory serves, in China the flu strains change by jumping from fowl, to pigs, to people, etc.
My grandfather was in the Army in Newport News, preparing to ship out for WWI when he got the Spanish flu. The war was over by the time he got over it. Didn't I read where that was one of the reasons the war ended? So many soldiers were getting sick and also spreading the disease.
My mother's father died of it when she was one. My grandmother said, "He had a sore throat and three days later he was dead."
Recently found out through the Internet that my father's father's brother also died of it. I got a query from someone about his grandfather, who died around 1920 or 1921. When I asked my father, he remembered: "He died of the flu."
For some reason, Philadelphia was harder hit than any other American city. My mother's family is from Philadelphia, and several relatives died in that pandemic.
What is also strange about the 1918 flu is that younger people were hit hardest.
As for flu shots, they only work on the specific type of flu that the experts think is coming. You can still get other types of viruses, including other strains of influenza.
One thing to remember is that flu should not be taken lightly. Thousands of people still die from flu every year. Senior citizens and young children are considered to be high-risk, but people with respiratory problems (such as asthma) should get the shot too. I am high risk (I'm asthmatic) and I get a flu shot every year. I have not gotten a major flu since I started getting the shots.
Also discussed on Wikipedia here under "Research". What you are saying makes much more sense, and it seems like they are finding it came from fowl. I am betting it was first reported at Ft. Riley, KS, but was actually appearing at the same time all over the globe.
Thanks! [singing] I'm goin' to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come...
Thousands of people still die from flu every year.Yeah, that's very true. With our artificial immunities through vaccinations, and the marvey medications, we take a lot of things for granted that were definitely not to be taken lightly just a few generations ago.
That could be, but the main reason was sheer exhaustion of the German side. After Lenin was smuggled into Russia and a separate peace was concluded, the Germans were able to bring a great deal of force from their eastern front to bear against the struggling western allies. The addition of US troops under the brilliant leadership of "Blackjack" Pershing was just enough to tip the balance.
Do you know if people who actually came down with this flu ever lived?
I heard it was the other way around, that the flu was a major cause of the Armistice in that both sides were running out of able bodied combatants.
In any event, my wife's grandfather was one of the victims. Died at the age of 42... typical of the early age at which most victims died.
One of the explanations as to why the Spanish flu hit the young and healthy is the phenomenon called a "cytokine storm" where a robust immune system is actually overstimulated and damages organs. Older folks with weaker immune systems are not as affected. You can read about it here: http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Science.PrimerCytokineStorm
Check out some of the books on the 1918 flu. They're fascinating. Here is a link to an interesting site at Stanford about the 1918 flu: http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/uda/
The reason it affects healthier people and is so deadly appears to be because of cytokine cascade effect: http://www.cytokinestorm.com/
Thank you.
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