In Praise of Epidemiologists and Virologists: The 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic
Eighty-Seven Years of Research Unlocked Some of the Mysteries of the Virus that Killed 50 Million People Worldwide I finished the book on the Spanish flu: "Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused it" by Gina Kolata. Over the last two months, I have read books on Ebola, Cholera, the Black Plague, and malaria. My reading list still includes books on HIV, smallpox, and the risk of coming pandemics. Scientists have learned that the virus causing the Spanish flu was genetically similar to viruses found in birds. It mutated in pigs, then infected humans. The Spanish flu virus was probably circulating (in a less virulent form) in the population for several years before the deadly 1918 outbreak that killed 50 million worldwide. The weird mortality curve , with younger people dying at higher rates, may reflect that older people had antibodies from the 1890 flu (developed wh...