September 28, 2006
1918 influenza findings
From the BBC:
An experiment to reconstruct the deadly 1918 flu virus has given a new insight into how the infection took hold.This is in line with what I recall reading years ago about the course of the epidemic (sorry, no references, so quote at your own risk), in that mortality was apparently higher among those who had had the previous wave of flu -- before it mutated into its infamously deadly form. One would normally expect previous exposure to have offered a degree of protection, but in this case, priming the immune system would have hurt, not helped.Scientists discovered a severe immune system reaction was triggered when mice were infected with the recreated virus.
The US team believes the extreme immune response could have provoked the body to begin killing its own cells, making the flu even deadlier.
ADDENDUM: Further commentary and links at FuturePundit.
Posted by David on September 28, 2006 3:09 PM
According to my family's oral tradition (we lost quite a few people to the 1918 Spanish Flu), the elderly and very young either didn't get sick at all or got sick and recovered. The robust, healthy ones died.
Which fits in with the theory that the immune systems overreacted and killed the healthy, with the strongest immune systems, not the ones with immature immune systems or systems weakened by age.
Dunno. I'm not an immunologist.
Posted by: Sarah on September 28, 2006 6:28 PM
cronaca.com