August 20, 2008
new insight into the 1918 pandemic
Following yesterday’s post on influenza antibodies still present in survivors of the 1918 pandemic, we receive news the virus wasn’t what actually killed most people.
What killed tens of millions of people around the world in the 1918 flu pandemic actually might not have been a flu virus. A new study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases blames different agents: bacteria.
The flu virus weakened lungs, opening the door to fatal bacterial pneumonia in most of the pandemic’s 50 million victims, according to researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The researchers based their findings on preserved lung tissue from 58 soldiers who were infected by the flu and died in 1918 and 1919. They found tissue changes that are the hallmarks of bacteria, not viruses, as well as the destruction of cells that normally protect lungs from bacteria.
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