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Kelby Dickey
English 110
Brian Hendrickson
September 28, 2015
Influenza
The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than World War I. It took the
lives of an estimated 50 million people. (Taubenberger) To this day it has been recognized as the
most devastating epidemic in world history. Many outbreaks of influenza today have been caused
by descendants of the 1918 virus. In fact, researchers today have been able to successfully
reconstruct the influenza virus that caused the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. Researcher
Terrence Tumpey and fellow researchers were recently able to complete the virus coding
sequence for the influenza outbreak of 1918. Tumpey described how the team was able to use
reverse genetics to generate an influenza virus that has all eight of the gene segments that the
virus in 1918 had. His research team got the pieces of genetic material from the lungs of a
deceased Alaskan Inuit women who died from that terrible disease. Because she died in Alaska
her grave was extremely cold which kept her body well preserved. Scientists were able to use
her lung material and study it to help prevent a modern day pandemic. The concluded by her
lung material that the disease had made a direct jump from birds to humans. What made the 1918
influenza virus so different from all the others was how it had an ability to rapidly replicate. That
strain of influenza had a high growth rate once it reached the throat and the human bronchial
epithelial cells. It caused death not only to humans but also mice and chicken eggs. (Swanye)
The reconstruction of the Influenza virus is a way to further research in preventing
another devastating pandemic. While many argue it is dangerous to have recreated such a deadly

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strain of influenza the CDC stated that the benefits are important for pandemic prevention. The
CDC responded to critics saying that This information is critical to evaluating the effectiveness
of current and future public health interventions, which could be used in the event that a 1918like virus reemerges. The knowledge from this work may also shed light on the pathogenesis of
contemporary human influenza viruses with pandemic potential. The natural emergence of
another pandemic virus is considered highly likely by many experts, and therefore insights into
pathogenic mechanisms could contribute to the development of prophylactic and therapeutic
interventions needed to control pandemic viruses. Knowing certain aspects about the recreated
strain of influenza can allow scientists to prepare plans and other strategies for diagnosing,
treating, and preventing any other possible pandemic diseases. For example, if the same 1918
influenza broke out there are two types of antiviral drugs, rimantadine and oseltamivivir that
have been shown to be effective against strains of viruses very similar to the 1918 virus. (CDC)
It is important for the CDC to come up with these solution to the 1918 virus due to the
seriousness of not only the spread of the virus but also the symptoms. The symptoms were high
fever, severe respiratory problems, dark spots on cheeks, pulmonary hemorrhages, and coughing
up blood. Because the 1918 influenza virus was so deadly and was able to spread so quickly it
had an impact on Europe during the 1918-1919 time period that was terrible.
The 1918 Influenza epidemic arrived right when Europe began to see peace coming their
way. Victory for the Allies against the Germans was emanating with the Americans having just
joined the fight. 1918 was a year of death but also peace. Billings mentioned in her article how in
the Journal of the American Medical Association final edition of 1918 it noted: "The 1918 has
gone: a year momentous as the termination of the most cruel war in the annals of the human race;
a year which marked, the end at least for a time, of man's destruction of man; unfortunately a

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year in which developed a most fatal infectious disease causing the death of hundreds of
thousands of human beings. Medical science for four and one-half years devoted itself to putting
men on the firing line and keeping them there. Now it must turn with its whole might to
combating the greatest enemy of all--infectious disease. The flu brought focus from the war to
fighting this new epidemic. A way the disease was able to spread so easily was that people were
so focused on the war that many overlooked the signs and symptoms that allowed the disease to
spread rapidly.
According to the CDC, normal symptoms of influenza were a fever, nausea, aches and
diarrhea. Many who got the disease in 1918 experienced severe attacks of pneumonia. (Billings)
The individuals would develop dark spots on their cheeks, their lungs would fill with a frothy,
bloody substance and eventually the victims would turn blue due to suffocation. People would
come down with this illness and immediately, within a few hours, and suffer a horrible death.
One physician in Billings article wrote that patients with seemingly ordinary influenza would
rapidly "develop the most viscous type of pneumonia that has ever been seen" and later when
cyanosis, discoloration of the skin resulting from poor circulation, appeared in the patients, "it is
simply a struggle for air until they suffocate," (Grist, 1979). Another physician recalled that the
influenza patients "died struggling to clear their airways of a blood-tinged froth that sometimes
gushed from their nose and mouth," (Starr, 1976). The physicians of the time were no match to
fight against the powerful new virus of influenza. Physicians of that time were often confusing
influenza with other diseases such as the common cold, cholera or the plague. Hospitals in the
US began to recognize the early symptoms of influenza which included temperatures from 102 to
104 degrees.(Knox) With the high temperature, victims also experienced a sore throat,
exhaustion, headache, aching limbs, bloodshot eyes, a cough and violent nosebleeds. Some

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patients also suffered from digestive issues such as vomiting and diarrhea. Most patients who
experienced these symptoms began to make a full recovery. Once patients had begun to recover
from their symptoms they would then suffer a relapse which brought along more severe
respiratory problems and some would experience huge pulmonary hemorrhages.(Billings) Once
the patients had passed, pathologists found them to have oversized spleens and swollen lungs.
(Taubenberger) What made diagnosis so difficult in 1918 was that many of the symptoms
patients were experiencing werent associated normally with influenza.
The strain of influenza that caused the Spanish flu pandemic was influenza A (H1N1).
(Billings) Historian John Barry believes ground zero to be Haskell County, Kansas. In February
of 1918, multiple recruits, from Haskell County Kansas, arrived to Fort Riley already sick with
influenza. (Knox) Within a few days the disease had spread throughout the camp. From there it is
believe that it spread through the American army to Europe and then the rest of the world. A
more lethal strain made a reappearance in America in September 1918 at Camp Devens, near
Boston Massachusetts. This strain of influenza was unlike any other. Influenza would usually
infect mostly infants and the elderly resulting in high mortality rates but the flu of 1918 took
down young, healthy adults. It spread rapidly through all the trade routes and war paths. The
disease found a home in overcrowded camps and ships for troops. Even President Woodrow
Wilson contracted the illness. In April during the Paris Peace Conference, President Wilson was
diagnosed with influenza and was unable to negotiate in the conference. (Taubenberger) Today,
due to the recreation and severity of this disease there are biosafety precautions to keep the
public safe. The CDC informed the public that all viruses having one or more of the genes
segments from the 1918 influenza virus were to follow biosafety guideline set forth by the
Interim CDC-NIH Recommendation for Raising the Biosafety Level Laboratory Work Involving

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Noncontemporary Human Influenza Viruses. Another worry from the public is if this recreated
influenza virus from 1918 can be released to the public and used as a biological weapon. Some
believe that the medical report could provide a plan for bioterrorists to developed and release the
deadly virus into the public. The CDC responded that while there are certain risks that the
benefits of sharing the information with the scientific community would hugely strengthen the
not only the health but the security of the public. Thankfully, there are no immediate dangers
from the 1918 influenza virus that took the lives of so many young and innocent victims.

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Works Cited
Billings, Molly. "The 1918 Influenza Pandemic." The 1918 Influenza Pandemic. N.p., n.d. Web.
14 Sept. 2015. <https://virus.stanford.edu/uda/>.
Knox, Richard. "1918 Killer Flu Reconstructed." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2015.
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4946718>.
"Reconstruction of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Virus." Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 July 2014. Web. 14 Sept.
2015. <http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/1918flupandemic.htm#>.
Swayne, David E. "1918 Killer Flu Reconstructed." NPR. NPR, 26 Aug. 2005. Web. 28 Sept.
2015.
Taubenberger, Jeffery K. "Biology Is the Mother of All Fixation." Trauma Rules 2 (2006): 120.
Web.
Tumpey, Terrance M., Christopher F. Basler, Patricia V. Aguilar, and Hui Zeng. "Characterization
of the Reconstructed 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic Virus." Characterization of the
Reconstructed 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic Virus. N.p., 7 Oct. 2005. Web. 28 Sept.
2015.