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NO.2367-The Great Influenza Era
Author: Ziyu
Proofreading: Gu Hanying / Editor: Moth
In March 1918, World War I was not over yet. The Entente and the Central Powers were still fighting on the land of Europe. Starting from the spring of this year, batch after batch of soldiers from both sides of the war fell. They did not die from artillery fire, but were taken away by an invisible force.
War, plague, hunger, death...
Under the disputes between the great powers, the world is in chaos
(Picture: wikimedia) ▼
Both warring parties strictly guarded against the news for various reasons. Neutral country Spain first reported Madrid the emergence of a strange disease with epidemic characteristics . Since then, various countries have used to blame . This epidemic, which was enough to affect the history of the entire 20th century, was unanimously called the "Spanish Flu".
In 1918, the British " Times "
advertisement for drugs claiming to prevent influenza (Picture: wiki) ▼
This scene The pandemic that lasted for about 2 years spread throughout the world's major countries in a short period of time. It is estimated that about one-third of the world's population suffered from varying degrees of symptoms (the world's population was less than 2 billion at the time). The death toll will always be a mystery, and may be around 50 million, or even as high as 100 million.
After the 1920s, the influenza crisis gradually subsided. But some people believe that the various influenza viruses that have appeared around the world over the next hundred years are descendants of the pandemic strain. According to this statement, we have not yet completely emerged from the shadow of that epidemic...
The battle between humans and viruses is far from over
(Figure: Shutterstock) ▼
天下神神
Since people discovered that an unknown flu-like infectious disease is raging in the military camp. For reasons such as stabilizing military morale, morale and public sentiment, governments participating in the war have kept silent.
But the virus will not stop spreading because of people's silence . In the early 20th century, global communication was far less rapid than today. In just half a year, the epidemic appeared in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, China, Japan...
The patient's complexion was cyanotic, which is medically called "lavender cyanosis"
Therefore, this kind of influenza is also known as It's called the "Purple Death Disease" ▼
People have developed symptoms such as fever, headache, cough, and some people have developed pneumonia and other severe diseases. Among them, young adults aged 15-40 are particularly affected, and the mortality rate is also the highest.
Later scholars speculated that this unreasonable phenomenon was due to the fact that the elderly had certain antibodies after the last influenza in the 1890s; on the other hand, the pandemic caused cytokine storm in young adults, leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome or multiple organ failure.
Even if you are strong, you cannot say that there is no danger (Picture: wiki) ▼
In short, one-third of the world's population will be infected , and the death toll may exceed 50 million, or even reach an astonishing 100 million.
When the influenza pandemic first appeared in Europe, people were full of speculation about the origin of this new infectious disease.Traditionally, when a new disease emerges, people tend to blame other countries.
The Germans said that the influenza originated in Spain; Americans said that the infectious disease was spread through German submarines... Until this time, the "God's punishment" popular in the Middle Ages still had a wide audience. Even the "New York Times" insisted that the influenza was punishing the sinful people, and only devout Christians could escape this disaster.
However, the influenza virus does not care who you are, pious or not.
It attacks humans indiscriminately (Picture: National Archives) ▼
Later academic circles put forward several possibilities. One is that the pandemic originated in Guangdong, China. The reason is that many people in Guangdong had similar symptoms earlier at that time, and then spread through workers traveling to Europe. But some people pointed out that the outbreak in Guangdong at that time was pneumonic plague, not a pandemic, and the real medically recorded pandemic in China was later than in Europe.
Another theory is that the pandemic originated in the United States across the ocean. These scholars believe that as early as January 1918, a rural doctor in , Kansas, USA, discovered that an infectious disease was prevalent there, causing 18 people to become ill and three to die in just one day. Although the rural doctor issued a warning, he failed to pay enough attention.
Dirty living environment and poor sanitary conditions
When an unknown virus strikes, humans are vulnerable
(Picture: kansascity.com) ▼
In March of the same year, a case with similar symptoms also appeared in a military camp in Kansas. Within a few weeks, 200 people in the military camp developed pneumonia, and 60 people died.. Since then, as the United States has continued to increase its troops in Europe, the pandemic seems to have quietly landed, but countries still know nothing about it.
The large number of troops and the frequent mobilization of the army
provide conditions for the large-scale spread of the virus
(Picture: history.NAvy.mil) ▼
A U.S. Army field hospital nurse during the 1918 influenza pandemic
(Photo: shutterstock) ▼
In addition to the unknown origin, the cause of the influenza pandemic is also a mystery. The prevailing view at the time was that influenza was caused by Haemophilus influenzae, also known as Pfeiffer's bacterium. This view directly leads to the fact that more than a year after the pandemic, young people still have extremely high mortality rates, which makes doctors uneasy. They are still confused about the treatment of patients.
It was not until 1933 that a research team led by Wilson Smith isolated the first human influenza virus (type A) , confirming that influenza was not caused by bacteria.
Under the transmission electron microscope, the virus showed its true form▼
When the influenza virus was discovered, more than ten years had passed since the pandemic. People at that time were curious whether the influenza strain was the culprit that caused 50 million deaths in 1918? If so, why is there such a huge difference in mortality between and ?
Office workers during the 1918 influenza pandemic
(Picture: wikimedia) ▼
The Great Influenza that Mysteriously Disappeared
From May 1918 to May 1919, the Great Influenza swept across the world, causing three large-scale peaks of infection and death . After the 1920s, the Great Influenza mysteriously disappeared from people's sight, and there were no large-scale influenza outbreaks for decades.
With the continuous development of virology , scientists finally isolated influenza A from pigs and humans in the 1930s.Serological data at that time showed that the virus isolated from pigs and the 1918 pandemic virus were antigenically closely related to and .
The 1918 influenza virus (Picture: CDC) ▼
After the 1957 H2N2 pandemic, it was discovered that new influenza viruses could be generated from previous circulating viruses through genetic recombination. Since then, more and more scientists believe that after the pandemic swept the world, on the one hand, people who survived the infection had a certain degree of resistance; on the other hand, the influenza strain itself changed.
Further research found that the influenza virus belongs to the family Orthomyxoviridae . The family Orthomyxoviridae contains 7 genera, including 4 genera of influenza viruses and 3 genera of non-influenza viruses. Human influenza, caused by the influenza A virus , is the only member of this virus family known to cause a pandemic and is associated with high mortality.
virus cross section (bottom map: researchgate.net) ▼
But half a century has passed, and people are still not sure whether the influenza virus that caused the global pandemic in 1918 was influenza A . After the 1980s, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology matured, and people had the means to reconstruct biological nucleic acids through reverse inference.
In 1997, American pathologist Jeffrey Taubenberg and others used preserved pathological specimens of deceased victims of the pandemic to amplify viral nucleic acid based on PCR technology and detect part of its RNA gene sequence.
Taubenberger (left) and colleagues at work (Picture: cdc.gov) ▼
In the same year, Swedish retired pathologist Johan Herting (Johan) Hultin came to Alaska, USA, and opened coffins from frozen tombs - all of these people died of the pandemic - and found a mostly well-preserved female remains, from which scientific researchers isolated the entire sequence of the 1918-1919 pandemic influenza virus gene.
In 1997, Herting was digging and sampling in Alaska
He himself passed away early this year (Picture: cdc.gov) ▼
The above research shows that 918-1919 pandemic is a severe infectious disease caused by mutation of influenza A virus.
We are still in the age of influenza
The global natural hosts of influenza A viruses are birds, mainly waterfowl and shorebirds. Influenza A viruses are divided into multiple subtypes based on the HA and NA antigens on the virus surface. Well-known strains include H1N1, H5N1, H7N9, etc.
These strains exude a sense of lethality (Picture: cdc.gov) ▼
When a human cell is infected with two or more influenza A viruses at the same time, any one or all of the proteins may undergo recombination. This recombination mechanism led to the post-1918 influenza pandemics of 1957, 1968, and 2009.
The pandemic had a profound impact on the world. A large number of young adults became sick and died , causing serious non-combat attrition on both sides of the war. The collapse of the labor force in the rear factories also made the frontline material supplies become worse day by day, which indirectly accelerated the end of the First World War.
During the 1918 influenza pandemic, influenza patients were hospitalized for treatment
(Picture: Yitu.com) ▼
5At the same time, the impact of the First World War and the Great Influenza on the economy and population made it extremely difficult for countries to rebuild after the war. Some people even believed that this was the prelude to the world economic crisis in the 1930s.
Taking the United States as an example, the pandemic caused the average life expectancy in the United States to plummet by more than ten years ▼
After 1920, the pandemic seemed to quietly disappear from people’s sight. But in fact, influenza A virus has never left us .Over the past 100 years, people have made various efforts to defeat influenza.
In 1935, American virologist Thomas Francis Jr. led a research team to develop the world's first influenza vaccine, which was put into use in the 1940s. Subsequently, researchers discovered that changes in the main antigens HA and NA on the surface of the virus would render the original vaccine ineffective. Therefore, starting from 1973, WHO will recommend the use of vaccines based on the results of strain changes.
In 1957, doctors and nurses at a hospital in New York were vaccinated against influenza
(Picture: Library of Congress) ▼
But the vaccine alone was not enough. During the pandemic, patients had no cure and doctors were helpless, which made people realize the urgency of developing new drugs.
In 1928, Fleming discovered penicillin . As an antibacterial drug , although penicillin is ineffective against viruses, it can treat secondary bacterial infections after influenza, reduce the rate of severe illness and mortality, and buy more time for curing influenza . In addition, the development of multiple antiviral drugs in the 20th century also made a huge contribution to preventing the global outbreak of influenza.
Fleming's discovery saved countless lives in the future
(Picture: wikimedia) ▼
The most important thing is the formation and improvement of the global public health system.
In order to respond to the pandemic, WHO established a global influenza program in 1948 and established an influenza center ; in 1952, WHO once again established a global influenza surveillance and response system composed of 26 countries, laying the foundation for early warning and timely intervention in influenza outbreaks.
At the same time, various countries have gone all out to publicize and promote health education, and the people's medical literacy has begun to gradually improve. These measures have laid a solid foundation for timely control of influenza epidemics in the future.
After this "epidemic", people's public health awareness has improved a lot
(Picture: Yitu.com) ▼
Now we still have not been able to completely eliminate the influenza virus, influenza is still around you and me . Every winter and spring is a period of high incidence of influenza, but scientific progress over the past 100 years has made us no longer unfamiliar with and afraid of influenza.
html Thirty-three years ago, the new poison king- new crown officially entered the stage of history and is still active all over the world. At the beginning of the epidemic, although there were rich experiences and lessons, some scenes from a hundred years ago were still being staged in turn in some countries with ulterior motives. This can not but be said to be a kind of satire of .
When it comes to teaching humans a lesson, nature is the real "generous" .
Reference:
. 1918-1919 Great Influenza: The Silent Truth. China Association for Science and Technology. Published at 2020-05-12 05:40.
2. Lessons and responses: Re-examination of the "1918-1919 Great Influenza" under the new coronavirus epidemic. China Social Science Network. Published on 2020-04-27 14:26.
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5. Jester B, Uyeki TM, Jernigan DB, Tumpey TM. Historical and clinical aspects of the 1918 H1N1 pandemic in the United States. Virology. 2019;527:32-37.
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*The content of this article is provided by the author and does not represent the position of the Earth Knowledge Bureau
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