Influenza epidemic

Influenza is a viral illness associated with high mortality and high hospitalization rates among persons younger than age 65 years. Seasonal influenza epidemics result in 25 to 50 million influenza cases, approximately 200,000 hospitalizations, and more than 30,000 deaths each year in the United States. Overall, more people die of influenza than of any other vaccine-preventable illness. 

Carl Vinson Institute of Government, The University of Georgia chronology of the 1918 Spanish Influenza Epidemic in Georgia, 1999. Available at www.cviog.uga.edu... 

The European bubonic plague of 1347 killed one-third of the population of Europe. It is the largest single plague ever recorded. The disappearance of the Aztec civilization was spurred by smallpox and measles introduced by Hernando Cortes and his band of Spanish invaders. The same diseases also decimated Native Americans in what is now the United States. Much more recently, the influenza epidemic of 1918 killed an estimated 40 million people worldwide. Malaria continues to be a major problem for people and their countries today in areas in which it is endemic. AIDS, tuberculosis, influenza, hepatitis, pneumonia, and a lengthy list of parasitic infections continue as important constraints on the welfare of people throughout the world. 

Pigs and birds influenza epidemics arise as new strains evolve ... 

Beebe GW Lung cancer mortality in World War I veterans possible relation to mustard gas injury and 1918 influenza epidemic. 

Influenza has plagued humankind since the dawn of history and continues to affect a significant proportion of the population irrespective of age or previous infection history. These periodic epidemics that reinfect otherwise healthy people have devastated communities world wide. Some pandemics like the 1917-1919 Spanish flu were responsible for the death of tens of millions of people throughout the world. The origins, spread, and severity of influenza epidemics have been a puzzle that has only in the last two decades been adequately addressed. In early times it was thought that the disease was the evil influence (sic) of the stars, and other extraterrestial objects. At present it is generally accepted that the disease is of viral origin, spread by aerosols produced by infected animals, and the continual production of new strains of the virus results in reinfection of the disease (reviewed in Reference 1). 

And what became of this Prussian charlatan when an influenza epidemic broke out — an epidemic that Dr. Bato s Remedy could do nothing to curtail For a time he was publicly ridiculed — and he was even lampooned as Dr. Caterpillar in a play appropriately titled None Are So Blind as Those Who Won t See. But he did not relinquish his own theatrical ambitions. Instead he waited for some new scientific phenomenon that he could incorporate into his act. Finally, the Montgolfier brothers introduced the hot air balloon, and Katterfelto had his new demo. During his show he launched what he called fire balloons and explained to the audience the workings of this new scientific marvel. At least until one of the balloons drifted off and ignited a haystack in a farmer s field. 

Questions of possible long-term toxicity remain. Since 1976 there has been a greater than 25% decrease in the incidence of ischemic heart disease in the United States.)) Increased exercise, a decreased severity of influenza epidemics, and fluoridation of waterkk have been suggested as explanations. 

Relatively innocuous factors can also sometimes influence liver enzyme activity. For example, the metabolic elimination of the bronchodilator theophylline has been reported to be prolonged in patients with influenza A or adenovirus infections. In 1990, an influenza epidemic in Seattle resulted in the admission of 11 children with high serum levels of theophylline and confirmed drug toxicity. These effects appear to be confined to cytochrome P450-based drug biotransformation. They may be related to the generation of interferons as a result of these infections, which, presumably, are causally related to the inhibitory effect on hydroxylases and demethylases. 

There was a worldwide influenza epidemic in 1918-1919 which killed about 20-30 million people throughout the world. There was no known cure for this disease. Is there a cure at the present time ... 

Figure 23.2 1918 pandemic flu The massive mortality due to the influenza epidemic in October of 1918 in Kansas. This is representative of what happened in every state in the nation. www.pandemicflu.gov... 

There has been much recent anxious speculation that the bird flu virus will mutate to a form that will spread from person to person. A worldwide influenza epidemic, at worst comparable to that which followed the Great War, could well be the net result of such an event. The efficacy of the first carbocychc neuraminidase inhibitor, oseltamivir (34), known famiharly... 

Mednick SA, Machon RA, Huttunen MO, Bonett D (1988) Adult schizophrenia following prenatal exposure to an influenza epidemic. Arch Gen Psychiady 45 189—192. 

Amantadine is effective only against influenza A it acts by interfering with the uncoating and release of viral genome into the host cell. It is well absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and is eliminated in the mine 3 h). Amantadine may be used orally for the prevention and treatment of infection with influenza A (but not influenza B) virus. Those most likely to benefit include the debilitated, persons with respiratory disability and people living in crowded conditions, especially during an influenza epidemic. 

In the case of an influenza epidemic, oral administration may be a more convenient and economical method for treatment and prophylaxis. 

The severity of the disease, not only in terms of its morbidity and mortality and the probability of permanent injury to its survivors, but also in the likelihood of infection must be sufficient to warrant the development and routine deployment of a vaccine and its subsequent use. Thus, whilst influenza vaccines are constantly reviewed and stocks maintained, the control of influenza epidemics through vaccination is not recommended. Rather, those groups of individuals, such as the elderly, who are at special risk from the infection are protected. 

In January 1976, several soldiers at Fort Dix (New Jersey) became sick with influenza found by die CDC to be caused by die swine flu vims responsible for the worldwide influenza epidemic in 1918-19 that killed 20 million (293). 

Logistics and training involved in an adequate nonmilitary defense of the nation appear to be a gigantic, though not insolvable task. Experience gained in the Asian influenza epidemic (1957-58) offers suggestions as to the tremendous latent resources of the nation. The need for continued research in CW and BW is imperative. The medical profession must take leadership in community... 

Pneumonia. Standardized death rates per million from pneumonia in England and Wales in the first 60 years of this century and at different ages are shown in Figures 2, 3, and 4. For the first half of this period they are 5-year averages, and thereafter annual. The fluctuations in this later period are attributable to influenza epidemics. 

Influenza-type viruses, notably, have been found to have crossed the species barrier, for example, from ducks and swine to humans (recall the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918 when 20 million lives were lost). There is, on the evidence, a genetic synthesis of an animal strain of virus with a human strain, producing deadly results sometimes. There are rumors that the rabies vaccine, derived from horses as... 

Thus, according to a November 1998 newsletter from Johns Hopkins University Medical School, in addition to the neurotoxin thimerosal, flu vaccines are found to contain the preservative formaldehyde, a known cancer-causing agent, and also aluminum (or its compounds), and can be associated with an increase in Alzheimer s disease. In the serious influenza epidemic occurring circa January 2000, a large percentage of the elderly who had had the flu shots also contracted the disease. For instance, a nursing home in Toronto reported 32 cases of the flu, out of which 31 had been vaccinated the month before. 

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