The influenza virus genes that confer efficient transmission of epidemic and pandemic strains in humans have not been identified. The rapid spread and severe disease caused by the 1918 influenza pandemic virus makes it an ideal virus to study the transmissibility of potentially pandemic influenza strains. Here, we used a series of human 1918-avian H1N1 influenza reassortant viruses to identify ...

BACKGROUND The threat of 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) is still causing widespread public concern. A comprehensive understanding of the epidemiology of 1918 pandemic influenza commonly referred to as the Spanish flu may be helpful in offering insight into control strategies for the new pandemic. OBJECTIVE We explore how the preparedness for a pandemic at the community and individual level ...

Highly pathogenic influenza A viruses, including avian H5N1 viruses and the 1918 pandemic virus, cause severe respiratory disease in humans and animals. Virus infection is followed by intense pulmonary congestion due to an extensive influx of macrophages and neutrophils, which can release large quantities of reactive oxygen species potentially contributing to the pathogenesis of lung disease. H...

Julian Schwinger’s influence on Twentieth Century science is profound and pervasive. Of course, he is most famous for his renormalization theory of quantum electrodynamics, for which he shared the Nobel Prize with Richard Feynman and Sin-itiro Tomonaga. But although this triumph was undoubtedly his most heroic accomplishment, his legacy lives on chiefly through subtle and elegant work in classi...

BACKGROUND There have been several studies of the transmissibility of the 1918 (Spanish) influenza virus, which has attributed to >20 million deaths. Many of the analyses to date have involved fitting predictions from a transmission model to the observed epidemic curves from different settings. METHODS Using morbidity data from cities in Europe and America and from confined settings during th...

need financial support because both his mother and father had died when he was an undergraduate leaving him financially independent. As a Quaker and conscientious objector he was exempted from military service and could begin research immediately, even though the country was at war. He studied the metabolism of lysine under the direction of Albert Neuberger. Fred had a very high regard for Neub...

BACKGROUND The current worst-case scenario for pandemic influenza planning is based on the catastrophic 1918-1919 pandemic. In this article, we examine the strength of cross-protection between successive waves of the 1918-1919 pandemic, which has remained a long-standing issue of debate. METHOD We studied monthly hospitalization and mortality rates for respiratory illness in 37 army camps, as...

carried in the upper respiratory tract, a phenomenon we referred to as “copathogenesis.” The mechanism(s) by which such potentiation may have occurred are unknown. We speculated that the 1918 virus may have had increased tropism for or have been unusually cytopathic for tracheobronchial cells, facilitating access of bacteria to the peripheral bronchopulmonary tree and leading to massive diffuse...

THE 1918 INFLUENZA epidemic was a major demographic event in the United States and worldwide. It is notable for its virulence (over 20 million deaths worldwide, approximately half a million in the United States); its maleness (a difference between male and female age-standardized death rates of 174 per 100,000 ); and its W-shaped mortality age profile (death rates having a mode in the 25–34-yea...

SUMMARY "The Great Influenza" recounts what humanity witnessed and experienced during the 1918 influenza pandemic. Author John M. Barry also describes the remarkable transformation of U.S. medical education just prior to 1918. That transformation not only helped America cope with the pandemic but also continues to influence medical research and practice today.