A Short History of Medicine by F. González-Crussi

Author:F. González-Crussi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781588368218
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2008-11-11T05:00:00+00:00

INFLUENZA

Every few decades, influenza wreaks havoc among human beings. The most intense of the outbreaks surged during World War I, in 1918, and blazed for a couple of years. Half the world population became infected, and, according to recent estimates, 50 million to 100 million people died.18 Given these numbers, influenza qualifies as the most lethal of known epidemics, surpassing bubonic plague, syphilis, and AIDS.

Although it was popularly known during World War I as the “Spanish flu,” this is a misnomer. Spain was not a contender in the war, so its press could devote more space to the epidemic than countries engaged in the conflict could. Therefore, the epidemic became more strongly associated with Spain in the public’s mind than with any other country. When the disease reached Russia, Moscow journalists jokingly wrote a headline saying “The Spanish Lady Has Arrived!” and the name stuck. In reality, the first case was traced to Camp Funston, Kansas, in March 1918.

Affected individuals complained of fever, chills, headache, prostration, dry cough, and worsening difficulties of respiration that could produce cyanosis (bluish discoloration of the lips, nail beds, and other areas, due to inadequate blood oxygenation). Death came swiftly, often from secondary bacterial pneumonia. No biological reason has been found that can explain the extraordinary severity of the 1918–20 pandemic. This important question has intrigued researchers, to the point that several expeditions have been organized to retrieve tissue samples from persons known to have died of this disease in an Arctic encampment. The human remains of victims of the “Spanish flu” buried in permafrost were thought to be sufficiently well preserved to permit study with modern techniques of molecular biology. Thus far, however, it has proven impossible to ascertain the reason for the high lethality of the 1918–20 pandemic.19

The need to continue research in this area should be obvious. Periodic scares emphasize the urgency of this concern. In 1997, there was a limited outbreak in Hong Kong, in which the virus H5N1 was transmitted from birds to humans and a third of the people infected died. Two million chickens had to be destroyed. There was a new outbreak in Asia in 2005, also caused by influenza virus H5N1. Because human beings have developed no immunity to the virus, the concern was great that a new pandemic might develop. There has been no great human mortality after the migratory birds carried the virus to three continents, but experts warn that, sooner or later, if historical experience and the facts of biology are any indication, a new influenza outbreak will arrive. The question is only when and where it will occur. It is important that we be prepared, but at present our readiness is insufficient.20

MISCELLANCEOUS CONDITIONS AND FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

Since Jenner’s discovery, advances in technology have produced various kinds of vaccines. Some consist of genetically altered or otherwise modified (“attenuated”) bacteria or viruses that can still live and reproduce inside a person and therefore stimulate immunity but do not produce disease. Vaccines of this kind include those for smallpox, yellow fever, polio (the oral vaccine), typhoid fever, measles, mumps, and rubella.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.