Green | December 30, 2008 | 20 comments

Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic

source: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE4BS56420081229?feedType=RSS&feedName=health...

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Chango2000
"Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly -- a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia.

They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs.

The discovery, published in Tuesday's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain.

Usually flu causes an upper respiratory infection affecting the nose and throat, as well as so-called systemic illness causing fever, muscle aches and weakness.

But some people become seriously ill and develop pneumonia. Sometimes bacteria cause the pneumonia and sometimes flu does it directly.

During pandemics, such as in 1918, a new and more dangerous flu strain emerges.

"The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most devastating outbreak of infectious disease in human history, accounting for about 50 million deaths worldwide," Kawaoka's team wrote.

It killed 2.5 percent of victims, compared to fewer than 1 percent during most annual flu epidemics. Autopsies showed many of the victims, often otherwise healthy young adults, died of severe pneumonia.

"We wanted to know why the 1918 flu caused severe pneumonia," Kawaoka said in a statement.

They painstakingly substituted single genes from the 1918 virus into modern flu viruses and, one after another, they acted like garden-variety flu, infecting only the upper respiratory tract.

But a complex of three genes helped to make the virus live and reproduce deep in the lungs."

Rest of story at link.
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20 comments // Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic

  • arcticspirit
  • navyblueblood
    • 0
      navyblueblood  

    • This is probably not a big deal to most people, but I sincerely doubt the authenticity of the photo attached to this article. Just doesn't look right.

    • 3 years ago
  • nordman
    • 0
      nordman  

    • This is a great way to stop global warming and overpopulation. Just give the rich and powerful families the genetic ability to resist the virus and let it lose on everybody else. In the end, it is all about the money. If we get enough knowledge we could possible just wipe out certain ethnic groups. This is really scary stuff!

    • 3 years ago
  • jimenagamio
  • cowboychrissy
  • mojojuju
  • islek
  • tursiops
  • ajiacoysancocho
    • 0
      ajiacoysancocho  

    • I'm not sure what to make of this. If the world is now safe of the the virus, the work paid off. Otherwise the time and energy for this were better spent on other scientific research.

    • 3 years ago
  • mjones04
  • cbjones
  • islek
    • 0
      islek  

    • Very interesting and informative article. Thanks for posting. One of the students in a class I assisted in made a documentary about the flu pandemic and it piqued my interest for some reason.

    • 3 years ago
  • Tayllerand
  • 02
    • 0
      02  

    • Oh, and who really is paying the tab?
      And what do you think they are planning?

      Oh, that's right, you're a "nice person" who doesn't like to think.

    • 3 years ago
  • crob80227
  • crob80227
    • 0
      crob80227  

    • In the movies Bio Research facilities are always depicted as technological marvels located 15 stories below ground and have a series of fail safe procedures. But I worry that depiction is about as accurate as the high tech labs featured on CSI: Miami.

      In real life the guys fucking around with this hyper-virulent strain of flu virus of probably working in a crowded college lab that they share with five other researchers....and their high tech failsafe procedures are a) screaming at the top of their lungs while blood pours out of their eyes and b) frantically trying to duct tape plastic over the door after they've (oops!) accidentally dropped one of the virus test tubes.

      This kind of research is necessary, but knowing Bush's absolute hatred of spending money on anything besides oil wars in Iraq and Haliburton I'm terrified that these scientists aren't being funded to a level where this kind of research can be done safely.

      :-(

    • 3 years ago
  • livemaisey
  • melbutel
  • LozRiva
  • Justice146
    • 0
      Justice146  
    • livemaisey:

      I agree. Funny I was just thinking this the other day. We may get another pandemic with poor diet becoming popular as people undergo financial constraint. I recognise that I have not had any fresh vegetables this past week. Going bankrupt, feeling run-down, a bit depressed. I am sure I am vulnerable. We can be so cruel to the earth with our selfishness. If fewer of us existed perhaps the earth would benefit with a pandemic purge. I just hope its 'not in my own back yard'!

    • 3 years ago
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