Researchers have discovered what caused the 1918 flu pandemic to be so fatal: a combination of three genes that allows the virus to enter the lungs and produce pneumonia.
They combined samples of the 1918 influenza with contemporary flu viruses to locate the three genes and stated that their investigation may aid in the expansion of newer flu drugs.
The findings may indicate mutations that could cause the regular flu virus to mutate into a hazardous pandemic strain.
Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and colleagues at the Universities of Kobe and Tokyo in Japan worked with ferrets, which have the flu in a comparable way to humans.
Normally the flu produces an upper respiratory infection distressing the nose and throat, as well as fever, muscle aches and weakness.
Nevertheless, many individuals become dangerously ill and build up to pneumonia. In pandemics, like in 1918, a perilous flu strain materializes.
“The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most devastating outbreak of infectious disease in human history, accounting for about 50 million deaths worldwide,” Kawaoka’s team wrote.
It was fatal to 2.5 percent of those who fell ill, contrasting the 1 percent who dies in the yearly flu epidemic. Autopsies indicated numerous victims perished from acute pneumonia.
“We wanted to know why the 1918 flu caused severe pneumonia,” Kawaoka said.
The three genes, alongside a 1918 adaptation of the nucleoprotein, or NP gene, made contemporary seasonal flu destroy ferrets in the same way as the 1918 flu.
Flu experts concur that a pandemic of influenza will occur in the future.
Four licensed drugs can combat the flu but the viruses normally transform into defiant forms, like bacteria shifts into kinds that shirk antibiotics.
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Image Caption: American Red Cross nurses tend to flu patients in temporary wards set up inside Oakland Municipal Auditorium, 1918
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