Flu Pandemic - HUH?

Predicted Bird Flu Pandemic
Could be a Non-event
By Anna Olson (1200 words)

The media is overwhelming us with warnings that a flu epidemic like the one in 1918 could return: We’re overdue for another epidemic…. This bird flu could be the ‘big one’….We need to be prepared with vaccines and drugs,” the experts are saying.

Nothing has portrayed the coming calamity better than “Black Dawn: The Next Pandemic” shown on CBC’s The Fifth Estate in January, 2006.
At the end of this epic disaster – millions of people dead from the vicious avian flu, economies in ruins – the commentator says the predictions came from material on the 1918 flu.

I know: I’ve been reading the same books. I recognized some of the quotes.
Only I saw details they didn’t. For some reason, they missed the various factors, other than a virus, that could have contributed to the 20 to 40 million deaths attributed to the 1918 flu. They should have considered the overuse of vaccines and serums; dangerous medical treatments like aspirin and mercury; patent medicines laced with alcohol, cocaine and opium; unsanitary conditions, malnourishment, poverty, and the disruption of war including poison gases and trench warfare.
Here are some of the points they missed:
* Vaccination of the troops in the U.S. became mandatory in 1911. All soldiers were immunized as the men gathered in training camps across the country to prepare for entry into World War I. The vaccines available at that time were smallpox, rabies, anthrax, typhoid, plague, meningitis and yellow fever, many of them causing as much damage as the illness itself.
One doctor of the times noted: “It is of some importance that immediately prior to the onset of the epidemic, some thousands of these soldiers had just received typhoid vaccine.”
This 1918 “killer flu” started in the military camps of the U.S. and spread to Europe when the American military arrived in the spring of 1917.

* Vaccines were thought to be the number one remedy for bringing the epidemic under control so the troops arriving back on American and Canadian soil were re-vaccinated. School inoculation programs were set up and the public was exhorted to be vaccinated for protection against the dreaded “Spanish Lady.” Vaccines and serums (clear liquid from the blood of sick or recovering patients, or from horses in the case of diphtheria serum) were also injected if a person got sick. To fight the flu, the American federal government allotted a million dollars, most of which was funneled into vaccine production.
All these vaccines were made with pathogens other than viruses which were too small to be visible in the microscopes of the day. Researchers would have to wait for the invention of the electron microscope in the 1930s to be able to see the little bundles of viral DNA and RNA, many thousands of which could fit on the tip of a pin.

All the vaccines and serums of 1918 contained mercury as part of the carrier liquid. We now know that mercury, a strong poison, can cause immune, sensory, neurological, motor and behavioural problems. Because vaccines and serums were used for treatment as well as prevention, it’s possible people were accumulating a toxic load of mercury in their bodies as well as all the pathogens in the vaccines. Adding to the problem, doctors often prescribed calomel, a mercury-based remedy.

Historians comment on how the Spanish flu brought down the young, healthy adults instead of just the elderly and children. The high vaccination rate for the military (mainly men from 18 to 40 years) and school vaccination programs could have contributed to the higher mortality rate in that age group.
* Aspirin, a popular remedy in the early 1900s suppressed pain and cured headaches but people didn’t realize that it could also damage the lining of the stomach, create a prolonged bleeding time, and cause respiratory problems. Alcohol, another favoured medication of that time, increases aspirin’s side effects. Since the mid 1980s, we know that Reye’s syndrome (repeated vomiting, severe liver dysfunction, brain swelling, change in level of consciousness – and often death) is connected to taking aspirin while sick with a viral illness. In 1918, the doctors thought that aspirin and alcohol were safe for the mid-teens to 50-year-olds – again, the age that had the highest death rate.
* Phenacetin was widely used to treat the Spanish Flu – and used generally up to the 1970s when it was banned due to carcinogenic and kidney-damaging effects.

* Laudanum – alcohol mixed with opium and sweetened with sugar – was an accepted remedy in the early 1900s. In use since the 1500s and very addictive, laudanum could create rages and hallucinations in its devotees. The opium content depressed the vitality of the body, creating a pale and frail appearance. Respiratory complications, low blood pressure, mental health problems, severe constipation, lung, liver, kidney and brain damage, loss of weight and frequent infections were common side effects.

* Chloroform was used in a number of cough medicines. Now banned, chloroform has been found to damage the lungs, liver and kidneys.
Usually symptoms of flu are sore throat, coughing, muscle pain, abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. Pneumonia is the complicating factor that can kill those with weak immune systems. The elderly, children and those with other health problems are the most vulnerable.

Symptoms of the Spanish flu (so called because Spain was the first to publicize flu illness and death) were so bizarre that many doctors insisted on using “influenza” in quotation marks. Patients might have a sudden collapse, a fever of 104o F., a rosy rash across the chest, purple face, hands and feet, coughing and vomiting blood, and often death within hours or a couple of days. Sometimes people would go crazy or have a fit of rage just before dying. Some doctors claimed they were seeing symptoms of blood poisoning although there was also evidence of an infectious element.

Influenza has been with us since recorded time. The Italians called it “influenza di freddo” meaning “influence of the cold.” People don’t become immune to this regular winter visitor because the virus changes a small amount every year called “virus drift.” Every so often, the virus changes more dramatically called “virus shift.” This “shift” virus tends to produce the same symptoms but more severe and with a higher mortality rate.

Perhaps bird flu (and now swine flu) would fit into the “shift” category but that doesn’t necessarily mean that a pandemic like the Spanish flu would sweep the world.
Medicine has evolved since 1918. Doctors no longer prescribe remedies based on alcohol, mercury, opium or chloroform, and they know the dangers of aspirin. Vaccines, although they can still cause problems, are not the same as 85 years ago. Public sanitation (at least in the Western world) has greatly increased. True, we have increased international travel which tends to spread infectious disease more easily but we also have higher levels of nutrition and health care. Most cases of the flu respond to bed rest and plenty of water to avoid dehydration.

It’s good to know how to take care of yourself and your loved ones in case of a flu epidemic, but I don’t think we need to panic about a repeat of the 1918 Spanish flu.

Anna Olson is a freelance writer and editor living in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
     by Anna Olson April 12, 2012 at 7:47 am