While the flu is something we would rather avoid, most of us don’t fear the flu virus. But maybe we should. Influenza viruses are complex, containing strands of RNA twisted together. When the strands untwist to replicate, they break and sometimes recombine with fragments of other viruses, resulting in new viral forms. Virologists cannot predict these mutations. Flu viruses reside in a variety of host species, and the virus can pick up nasty tricks as it moves from animal to animal, recombining with other flu viruses before moving on to infect a host of another species. By the time the virus reaches man, it might be highly contagious, extremely lethal, and nothing humans have ever seen before. The novel virus could quickly race around the planet, leaving destruction in its wake.
For those infected with the influenza virus, symptoms range from mild to severe. The most common symptoms include high fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle and joint pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. The influenza virus occasionally causes severe illness, including primary viral pneumonia and secondary bacterial pneumonia.
Three types of influenza viruses affect humans. These are known as types A,B, and C. A fourth type (D) has not been known to affect humans, but virologists believe it could. Influenzavirus A is the most worrisome of the four types, because wild aquatic birds are the natural hosts for influenza A, and the virus sometimes jumps to other species, causing massive outbreaks of infection in domestic poultry and creating pandemics of influenza in humans. Recent human pandemics caused by the influenza A virus include the 1918/1919 flu, the 1957 Asian Flu, and the 2004 bird flu.
Most experts consider the 1918/1919 flu (Spanish flu) pandemic one of the most baffling and terrifying pandemics of all time. Approximately 250,000 to 500,000 people worldwide die from the flu each year. The 1918/1919 (Spanish) flu, though, killed an estimated 20-50 million humans over the course of a year. Some estimates range as high as 100 million deaths. More terrifying yet, though, was who the virus killed. The very old, very young, or those with underlying health conditions usually succumb to the common flu, but the Spanish flu killed young, otherwise healthy adults.
Experts today still argue over why the Spanish flu killed the young and healthy, but many believe the virus triggered a cytokine storm, which is an overreaction of the body’s immune system. This storm proved particularly deadly for young adults with robust immune systems.
Historians and virologists also argue over where the Spanish flu originated, but everyone agrees it did not come from Spain. Since Spain remained a neutral nation during WWI, it did not censor its press, and reporters freely documented early accounts of the disease, causing many people to think the flu originated in Spain. Some experts believe the 1918 flu pandemic began in Haskell County, Kansas, and quickly spread from there to Fort Riley when an enlisted man went home to Haskell for a few days, became infected, and returned to the army base. In the overcrowded barracks on base, the flu quickly spread.
The Spanish flu suddenly burned out in the Spring of 1919. While this H1N1 influenza A virus has not returned since, epidemiologist fear it will reappear. This pandemic occurred over one-hundred years ago, so few people alive now have immunity to this strain, and it could again exact a nasty toll.
Flu experts study the world and watch carefully for the next possible flu epidemic. Infectious disease experts say it is not a matter of if but when the next flu pandemic will occur.
Robin Barefield is the author of four Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter, and Karluk Bones. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska, and listen to her podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier.
