In 2008 researchers finally announced what made the 1918 flu so deadly. According to the PBS documentary Influenza 1918 more than 100 soldiers had reported to the infirmary by noon.
What Made Spanish Flu So Deadly Science
The first to which several lines of evidence point is that.
What made the 1918 flu so deadly. A group of three genes enabled the virus to weaken a victims bronchial tubes and lungs and clear the way for bacterial pneumonia. Almost 90 years later in 2008 researchers announced theyd discovered what made the 1918 flu so deadly. The world was more interconnected than it ever had been.
The flu had plenty of chances to spread. Used genetic and evolutionary approaches to infer that for much of the 19th century a flu virus strain containing the same subtype of the. In the tail end of WWI people were moving all over.
The Spanish flu also known as the 1918 influenza pandemic was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. This highly fatal second wave was responsible for. It was a new type of flu.
Antibiotics like penicillin discovered in. There are two broad schools of thought about what made 1918 exceptional. Many flu deaths are also caused by secondary bacterial infections that take root in the weakened body leading to pneumonia.
The deadly pandemic Spanish flu of 1918 killed many millions but unlike most flu strains it targeted young adults rather than infants and the elderly. It was also exacerbated by malnourishment overcrowded medical camps and hospitals and poor hygiene. Soldiers were coming home or being re-stationed reliefrepair crews were mobilizing etc.
A number of factors all came together at once. Lasting from February 1918 to April 1920 it infected 500 million people about a third of the worlds population at the time in four successive waves. A group of three genes enabled the virus to weaken a victims bronchial tubes and lungs.
In 1918 the second wave of the flu caused even more deaths than the first. There are four influenza pandemics so far 1918 1957 1968 and 2009. But to explain the 1918 pandemics unusual virulence many scientists had come to believe the virus killed by provoking an overzealous destroy-the-village-to-save-it.
Several dozen soldiers died. One of the first registered cases was Albert. Genetic material from bird flu virus picked up just before 1918 They found that a human H1 virus that had been circulating among humans since around.
There were 3 different waves of illness during the pandemic starting in March 1918 and subsiding by summer of 1919. Then the infection rates slowed that summer and some. These are the H and the N that appear respectively in the taxonomy of flu strains such as the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic the 1918 pandemic was likewise caused by an H1N1 virus.
A group of three genes enabled the virus to weaken a victims bronchial tubes and lungs and clear the. It has long been recognized that most flu deaths are due to pneumonia caused by secondary bacterial infections. Influenza A also has an RNA-based genome which allows it to frequently mutate similar to the rapid changes that made HIV difficult to treat.
Almost 90 years later in 2008 researchers announced theyd discovered what made the 1918 flu so deadly. Because people have not encountered the flu strain before no one has immunity which resulted in global pandemics. Why was the 1918 Spanish flu so deadly.
Influenza pandemics are results of crossover of avian flu. Though the virus spread quickly in April and May of 1918 the symptoms were relatively mild and quick to leave the body. But to explain the 1918 pandemics unusual virulence many scientists had come to believe the virus killed by provoking an overzealous destroy-the-village-to-save-it immune response especially in young adults with robust immune systems.
The Economist explains Why the flu of 1918 was so deadly. The pandemic peaked in the US. A major study from 2014 led by Professor Michael Worobey found that the H1 flu virus had entered the human population just 10 or 15 years prior.
The reason remains a mystery. When the Spanish flu first appeared in early March 1918 it had all the hallmarks of a seasonal flu albeit a highly contagious and virulent strain. During the second wave in the fall of 1918.
Within a week that number had quintupled.
