20.5.1: health/immunity/1918 flu pandemic
/H1N1 with bleeding from high-dose aspirin:
summary:
. the 1918 flu pandemic was an H1N1 virus;
there was some who suspected it was a bioweapon
and not just the flu;
because a lot of bleeding was involved,
as if it was hemorrhagic fever virus
meant to influence the current war (WWI);
however, there was a new popular fad at the time,
of taking very high doses of aspirin
as it it had only recently been discovered;
and they unaware that it was the aspirin
that was causing the same sort of bleeding
that is caused from scurvy or low vit'C.
. historian on @scifri radio said
the 1918 pandemic was able to kill just the young
because it caused an autoimmune reaction;
so, the stronger you could attack the virus
the stronger you would attack yourself.
wiki`Spanish_flu:
. the 1918-1919 H1N1 influenza pandemic
was among the most deadly events in recorded human history,
killing an estimated 50-100 million persons.
. most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill
the very young and the very old,
with a higher survival rate for those in between,
but the Spanish flu pandemic resulted in a
higher than expected mortality rate for young adults.
as if due to cytokine storm;
in contrast, medical opinion at the time
assumed the higher death rate was due to poor times:
malnourishment, overcrowding, and poor hygiene,
all exacerbated by the recent war,
promoted bacterial superinfection.
Thus bacterial pneumonia killed most of the victims.
What Really Happened During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic?
The Importance of Bacterial Secondary Infections
[J Infect Dis. 2007 Dec 1;196(11):1717-8]
Reply to Shanks and Brundage:
Many plausible mechanisms of pandemic mortality disparities.
[Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 May 2;114(18):E3588-E3589]
Dr. Karen M. Starko MD:
. the high mortality rates of the 1918 Spanish flu
were due to bad advice about aspirin:
the recommended dose at that time
was more than ten times higher than now:
8-31 grams per day instead of 0.3-4g.
Bayer first introduced water-soluble aspirin tablets
18 years before the 1918 flu,
but it was only during that very year
that Farbenfabriken Bayer had completed a
worldwide distribution of aspirin;
and Bayer Aspirin sales more than doubled
from 1918 to 1920.
. Aspirin was recommend by the US Surgeon General,
just prior to the October death spike;
high doses not only cause bleeding disorders
but also pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs);
and during the flu there in an increased chance of
Pneumonia (infection of the lungs).
. many who died of the flu at that time
had frothy, blood-tinged fluid in their lungs.
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