Journal on the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918

The Spanish Flu Influenza Pandemic of 1918

Around a century ago, near the cessation of World War I, an unusually deadly and virulent pandemic spread rampantly across the globe. In contrast to the other endemic outbreaks that have plagued humanity, this particular one was extraordinary in certain ways. Aside from the fact that the flu epidemic wiped out an unprecedented 50-100 million lives (3-5% of the world’s population at the time) in the course of a single year (more than HIV/AIDS has in three decades), the 1918 Influenza pandemic has perplexed scientists and health officials with many unanswered questions since.

Unlike conventional flu seasons and epidemics where the most vulnerable are often as common knowledge would suggest the very young and old due to the possession of a weak immune system, the 1918 flu victims were surprisingly those in the prime of life around the ages of 20 to 40. This sinister and ominous virus rather invoked a cytokine storm or a surge within the activity of the immune system. As the victim's defense mechanisms began to overreact, their lungs absorbed fluids and slowly built it up to the point where they could no longer breathe. They essentially drowned by their own body fluids. It was for this reason why the young and healthy in the prime of their lives were the most liable to this nefarious malady.

With the passing of time, the 1918 Flu pandemic gradually faded away from memory. In the years that followed with the advent of other epidemic outbreaks, a variety of questions have been evoked about the elusiveness of the Spanish flu influenza virus. What was particularly unique about this malicious virus that took away the lives of nearly 50 - 100 million people in the span of a few years? Where did it ultimately originate? How did it evolve and mutate into the precarious nature that targeted the young and healthy rather than the elderly? The answers may lie within the state of current research on influenza viruses and their evolutionary mechanisms.

Unfortunately at that time, scientific knowledge was nearly devoid about viruses and so many deemed the malignant disease was induced primarily by a bacteria. The lack of the essential knowledge regarding viruses burdened the development of any vaccinations along with any formal investigations of the flu. It was not until after the discovery of viruses that serious speculation and research began on the nature of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. In order to obtain a better understanding regarding the characterization of the virus, a team of scientists voyaged to Alaska in the late 1990s. There buried under permafrost, they extracted lung tissue samples from a native Alaskan woman frozen for eight decades. Being well preserved, the lung samples which contained tangible pieces of the pernicious virus were brought back to a lab. After several years with the application of advanced laboratory techniques known as reverse genetics, the scientists involved in this research were able to successfully sequence the viral genome as well as literally reconstruct the actual flu specimen from scratch. In other words the 1918 Flu Pandemic virus has been resurrected from the grave and vigilantly kept under highly secure quarantine. In spite of ethical concerns regarding the implications of a novel approach, it is hoped that such research on the virus will culminate in the necessary knowledge to preclude another deadly pandemic from ever recurring again.

One major question that has haunted many is whether such an apocalyptic plague can ever possibly occur if not in our lifetime? While the odds are at best slim and remote, there is always the possibility that such deadly man-made specimens can be genetically engineered in laboratories as a method of bioterrorism. If there is any valuable lesson that can be obtained from the 1918 Flu Pandemic, it is that nature itself is capable of being far more unforgiving and portentous than previously thought and envisioned.