BACKGROUND The origin and estimated death toll of the 1918-1919 epidemic are still debated. Europe, one of the candidate sites for pandemic emergence, has detailed pandemic mortality information. OBJECTIVE To determine the mortality impact of the 1918 pandemic in 14 European countries, accounting for approximately three-quarters of the European population (250 million in 1918). METHODS We a...

The 2009 H1N1 swine flu is the first influenza pandemic in decades. The crystal structure of the hemagglutinin from the A/California/04/2009 H1N1 virus shows that its antigenic structure, particularly within the Sa antigenic site, is extremely similar to those of human H1N1 viruses circulating early in the 20th century. The cocrystal structure of the 1918 hemagglutinin with 2D1, an antibody fro...

In the fall and winter of 1918–1919, an influenza pandemic of unprecedented virulence swept the globe leaving 40 million or more dead in its wake. The virus responsible for this catastrophe was not isolated at the time, and it seemed that this very lethal infectious agent was lost for study. However, it has recently become possible to study the genetic features of the 1918 “Spanish” influenza v...

BACKGROUND Zoonotic infections with H1N1 influenza viruses that evolved initially from the 1918 virus (1918) and adapted to swine threatened a pandemic in 1976 (1976 swH1N1) and a novel reassortant H1N1 virus caused a pandemic in 2009-2010 (2009 pH1N1). Epidemiological and laboratory animal studies show that protection from severe 2009 pH1N1 infection is conferred by vaccination or prior infect...

The "Spanish" pandemic influenza A virus, which killed more than 20 million worldwide in 1918-19, is one of the serious pathogens in recorded history. Characterization of the 1918 pandemic virus reconstructed by reverse genetics showed that PB1, hemagglutinin (HA), and neuraminidase (NA) genes contributed to the viral replication and virulence of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus. However, the ...

mission within families with children: incidence of symptomatic and asymptomatic infections.tion of adenovirus in clinical specimens by polymerase chain reaction and liquid-phase hybridization quantitated by time-resolved fl uorometry. al. Presence of specifi c viruses in the middle ear fl uids and respiratory secretions of young children with acute otitis media.manske RF Jr, Gern JE. Serial vi...

hanks and Brundage offer thought-provoking hypotheses about infl uenza pathogenesis during the catastrophic 1918–1919 pandemic (1). Although we neither agree nor disagree with their views, its central hypothesis of T-cell–mediated immunopathogenesis begs examination of past events in light of modern immunologic and virologic understanding. We also emphasize that effects of the pandemic virus sh...

Relatively little is known about the viral factors contributing to the lethality of the 1918 pandemic, although its unparalleled virulence was likely due in part to the newly discovered PB1-F2 protein. This protein, while unnecessary for replication, increases apoptosis in monocytes, alters viral polymerase activity in vitro, enhances inflammation and increases secondary pneumonia in vivo. Howe...

The 1918 to 1919 H1N1 influenza pandemic is among the most deadly events in recorded human history, having killed an estimated 50 to 100 million persons. Recent H5N1 avian influenza epizootics associated with sporadic human fatalities have heightened concern that a new influenza pandemic, one at least as lethal as that of 1918, could be developing. In early 2009, a novel pandemic H1N1 influenza...

Background.  Reanalysis of influenza survey data from 1918 to 1919 was done to obtain new insights into the geographic and host factors responsible for the various waves. Methods.  We analyzed the age- and sex-specific influenza morbidity, fatality, and mortality for the city of Baltimore and smaller towns and rural areas of Maryland and the city of Bergen (Norway), using survey data. The Maryl...