Grippe Espagnole

[Dave Monroe]

Culprit in 1918 flu deaths could be immune system
Research could help battle next pandemic
By SUSANNE RUST
srust at journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 17, 2007


Since the Spanish flu swept across the globe in 1918,
killing millions of healthy, young adults, researchers
have wondered what it was about this particular strain
of flu that made it so lethal.

They might finally have an answer.

According to an international team of researchers,
including Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, it might have been - paradoxically
- their health that contributed to their death.

The research appears in today's issue of the journal
Nature.

The 1918 flu has puzzled researchers for years. Not
only did it infect about a third of the world's
population, but it had a mortality rate 25 times that
of other influenza pandemics. In addition, many of the
nearly 50 million people killed by the disease were
young and healthy - a population that is usually
protected from, if not resistant to, most influenza
viruses.

So, what happened?

According to William Schaffner, a flu expert at
Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., who did not
contribute to the study, there have been three
generally accepted hypotheses to explain the 1918
flu's baffling behavior. The first is that something
other than the virus was the cause of the lethality.
For instance, because the flu struck during a world
war, it is possible that people were compromised by
stress, and therefore more susceptible to the virus.

Another hypothesis suggests the widespread mortality
was the result of secondary bacterial infections.

Finally, perhaps there was something inherent about
the virus itself that caused an extreme immune
response - a response that was so strong and so robust
that it killed its victims.

Recreating a killer

The latest research indicates that it's the third
hypothesis - an unchecked immune response - that
contributed to the lethality of the disease....

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=554110

"In the character of Callisto I was trying for a sort
of world-weary Middle-European effect, and put in the
phrase grippe espagnole, which I had seen on some
liner notes to a recording of Stravinsky's  l'Histoire
du Soldat.  I must have thought this was some
post-World War I spiritual malaise or something.  Come
to find out it means what it says, Spanish Influenza."
(SL, "Intro," p. 16)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0211&msg=72816


 
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