Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic

Reuters ^ | December 29, 2008

[2ndDivisionVet]

Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly -- a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia.

They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs.

The discovery, published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and colleagues at the Universities of Kobe and Tokyo in Japan used ferrets, which develop flu in ways very similar to humans.

Usually flu causes an upper respiratory infection affecting the nose and throat, as well as so-called systemic illness causing fever, muscle aches and weakness.

But some people become seriously ill and develop pneumonia. Sometimes bacteria cause the pneumonia and sometimes flu does it directly.

During pandemics, such as in 1918, a new and more dangerous flu strain emerges.

"The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most devastating outbreak of infectious disease in human history, accounting for about 50 million deaths worldwide," Kawaoka's team wrote.

It killed 2.5 percent of victims, compared to fewer than 1 percent during most annual flu epidemics. Autopsies showed many of the victims, often otherwise healthy young adults, died of severe pneumonia.

"We wanted to know why the 1918 flu caused severe pneumonia," Kawaoka said in a statement.

They painstakingly substituted single genes from the 1918 virus into modern flu viruses and, one after another, they acted like garden-variety flu, infecting only the upper respiratory tract.

But a complex of three genes helped to make the virus live and reproduce deep in the lungs.

[SisterK]

Spooky thing is that researchers were allowed to exume the bodies and play with the poison.

[SisterK]

“Wondering how this “new research” is going to fit into the mix...”

Its all part of the plan. No surprises.

[SisterK]

too much vitamin A is toxic and can affect your spelling

[NellieMae]

My grandfather’s brother got the flu in the epidemic in Wilmington, NC. He died and was buried on what was supposed to have been his wedding day. I always thought that it was so sad.

[Vietnam Vet From New Mexico]

What I find interesting is the lack of contemporaneous writings about it. It was as if it was too horrible an experience on which to reflect.

There was government censorship as well as self-censorship to avoid panic.

[Vietnam Vet From New Mexico]

What I find interesting is the lack of contemporaneous writings about it. It was as if it was too horrible an experience on which to reflect.

There was government censorship as well as self-censorship to avoid panic.

[VOA]

Good documentary from the “Secrets of The Dead” series (even if
it is from PBS!!!):

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/previous_seasons/case_killerflu/index.html

[tanknetter]

I hope they are very very very careful when handling these viruses. It would be a catastrophe if the 1918 influenza were to make its way into the general population.

Can you say "Capt. Tripps" boys and girls? I knew you could.

I never really heard much of this from my own family. The great-great uncle of a friend just "disappeared" during the pandemic and his family has always figured he was a flu casualty. Guy had gone overseas with Pershing and fought through WWI. Last letter his family has from him said he was waiting somewhere in France for his ride home. Never even made it aboard ship and the military didn't have a record on his final disposition ...

[wintertime]

Very sad story.

[VOA]

Few today realize how many died during that pandemic.

One of the few reasons I've know about the debacle is from what
I heard one of my father's aged (and loudest!) old aunts say
about "the WWI influenza" to me in the 1970s when I was an youngster:

"It was aweful! A bunch of the people went to bed one night and
when they woke up...They WAS DEAD!"

Sure, I smiled at her own way of recalling the sad event.

But she did sort of capture my imagination about how so many
people, often in their most vital, vigorous years, expired
in such a sudden and irrevocable manner.

[stayathomemom]

There was government censorship as well as self-censorship to avoid panic.

I'm referring more to private or diary type writings. My daughter took a class on plagues last winter. Since she was an Art History major, she wanted to write a term paper on art during the years of the black death. Despite having the vast resources of the U of Mich library at her disposal, she found that there really wasn't much art produced during that period. The horrible reality of what people were dealing with left no time or desire to depict it. It seems that the same thing happened during the flu pandemic.

I know that the war effort and government propaganda helped contribute to the spread of the flu. Those communities which took it very seriously, warned people to be very afraid of what might be coming, and instituted strict quarantines were actually spared. There was a community out west somewhere which would let no one into their town during the outbreak and no one got the flu there.

[drc43]

"I remember that very well,, all my brothers and I were sick. The Hong Kong flu here in the US in 1968 , 50 years after this pandemic. ..

I remember it very well... I was sick for over a year, once the flu was "gone".

Took me a few years more before I was really over it.

Nasty business.

[VOA]

Never even made it aboard ship and the military didn't have
a record on his final disposition ...

Although I'd heard about the "Spanish" influenza from old relatives...
after seeing the contemporary testimony from historical sources
(and survivors of the age) in the documentary (post 47),
I wouldn't be suprised if plenty of folks "vanished" during this
horrid affair.

I admit I'd not heard about the victims of the Spanish Flu dying
at such a rapid rate (and some of them in the burial/disposal
business) that they were stacked up awaiting disposal in some
US cities.
And hearing the old lady from the UK recalling seeing a young woman walking,
then sitting down to expire in the street...you can see how something
like record-keeping could really break down in the "hot zones".

[Smokin' Joe]

ping... just in case you missed this (Thanks, nully!)

[neverdem]

Thanks for the ping. Redundancy has its virtues. Happy New Year!

[ex-Texan]

Over 50 Million People Died . . . 'Nuff said.

1918 U.S. Army Photo of Victims of the Spanish Flu: Young Men in Top Physical Condition

[bert]

You are so right. I think the carrots did me in. Something shorted out the synapse and changed the well known D to an A.

I even went to the medicine chest to see for sure that the recently purchased new bottle was in fact Vitamin D and not A

[BuffaloJack]

My grandfather told me that almost every family on his block lost someone during the yellow flu. The family next door lost the mother and father and the neighborhood helped feed the 4 kids left behind while adult relatives were located.
The tales of the yellow flu that my grandparents told me made me very afraaid of any flu.

[MissP-38]

My husband’s Grandfather was in France with the Signal Corps at the end of WW I. He died of the flu in October 1918, just before the end of the War.
There are many buried in France because of this.

[shezza]

Bump for further study....