Posted on 10/05/2006 6:52:51 PM PDT by Coleus
People who lived during the 1918 influenza epidemic may hold secrets in their blood that could help fight a future pandemic, but finding them now is a race against time. People who were toddlers at the end of World War I -- when the epidemic swept the globe and killed 50 million -- are in their 90s now. Nearly a lifetime after the notorious outbreak, researchers are hoping those who lived through it will come forward and donate a vial of blood, which then will be analyzed for antibodies to the virus.
In particular, a New Jersey researcher is seeking those who had siblings or other close relatives who were infected or who died of influenza in 1918. "If we can examine their blood and antibodies, maybe we can solve the great mystery of this virus," said Eric Altschuler, a researcher at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. "Why was it so much more lethal than all other flu?"
Altschuler said antibodies and other cells created by the immune systems of people who survived the 1918 virus could, possibly, be used to create treatments if a similar virus again circles the globe, especially a bird flu. Altschuler will work with immunologists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Other researchers said scientists must collect the blood of influenza survivors before they are all gone.
"We can see how these antibodies responded to the virus and why these people survived," said Thomas Rowe, who studies emerging pathogens at Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Ala. "This virus killed so many people and spread so rapidly that maybe we will be able to uncover something about the virus that we didn't know," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
I had to look it up to figure out what you were talking about, but now that's my new word for the day!
One theory, and just a theory, about why the flu epidemic spread so fast around the world was that it was at the end of the war. Aspirin had just been introduced (according to the article) and had been used on the battlefield; returning soldiers were bringing the new "wonder drug" to the attention of their friends and families all over the world.
When a person is first taking an infectious disease, the body naturally produces an initial rise in temperature (a fever) in order to kill the bacteria causing the disease. The theory was that taking aspirin in order to bring down the initial fever associated with the flu caused the bacteria to survive and grow in huge numbers over the next few days and ultimately quickly killing a person as it regrouped in the system.
Upon reading this, I remembered that I saw a program on PBS concerning similar research done in England on the black death (bubonic plague). It was extremely interesting.
Here's a synopsis:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_plague/index.html
Really belated ping to flu research...
You're right. I'm 51, and I didn't know about this until about 10 years ago. I was kind of shocked that something of that magnitude would not be common knowledge.
I agree. In our reliance on antibiotics to kill what ails you, as a culture we have let the most basic of sanitary habits fade away.
I am afraid there would be a period when any pandemic disease would spread like wildfire, partly because so many are clueless about containing their own germs, and partly because diseases hyped in the press which seem to affect few would lead many people to ignore initial reports as more hype.
With air travel, in 24 hours the damage would be done.
My grandfather was one of eleven children born at the turn of the last century and onwards. What was amazing is that his mother carried all of her children to full term, and never miscarried. Given the lack of medical advice available at the time, this is amazing.
I believe the current estimate is that forty percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. If that is true, how did my great-grandmother not miscarry even once?
Maybe it is something in the genes.
That is interesting, since we still don't really know what the Black Death was.
This is what I was talking about. Of course I could be wrong by labeling it 'black plague'. I used the generic term of 'black plague'.
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life_sciences/report-41566.html
Son of a Gun! Bad link. Try this one:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/influenza/maps/index.html
I've read recently that some now believe that more than one infectious agent was involved.
Also, most of the deaths occured in the crowded cities and that is where the educated (literate) lived and most of the survivors couldn't read/write. Not much was written in this period. It is believed that something similar happened during the Dark Ages...nothing much is written about it until a hundred(s) years later.
My niece is CONSTANTLY sick now that she has started school, because my SIL religiously sanitized everything, used the Dial antibacterial soap, bleach, Purell, etc. -- the poor little girl had practically NO immune system, and when she started school she was ripe for every bug that came down the pike.
BTW, the two people I know who are never sick work clearing drains and sewers. Not sure I'd want the kids to go that far...
As for schools, daycare, etc., I have no doubt they could be the big pathogen exchange venues for a pandemic. We have several grandchildren in school (two who live with us), so when I get in from a job, I get to catch up on all the latest bugs they picked up at the local 'exchange'.
There was a time when people just kept their sick kids home, but with mandatory attendance limits and two paycheck families, that seems to not be the case nowadays.
Isn't the influenza a virus? Antibiotics are no help against those.
My grandfather is in his mid-90s and living in New Jersey. He didn't lose any immediate relatives to the flu, but perhaps he or a family member experienced the disease. I called my father and hopefully this can do some good.
My Mothers side was around Omaha at the time, and my fathers was 40 miles north.
So both where in the early outbreak zone (that spot in eastern Nebraska), but my father's side was further in the country.
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