Work

Studies on Influenza in the Pandemic of 1957-1958. Ii. Pulmonary Complications of Influenza*†

Year: 1959

Type: article

Abstract: Influenza presents a paradox. To the clinician practicing medicine in 1918, influenza was a fear-some disease attended by frequent and often fatal pulmonary complications. To the student of in-terpandemic influenza in the last quarter century, the disease is an acute, temporarily incapacitating infection of the upper respiratory tract which is benign except on the rare occasion when bacterial pneumonia supervenes. This contrast in the mani-festations of influenza has led to speculation that the disease of 1918 was either a different disease entity or caused by an agent of greater virulence than influenza viruses now encountered. The microbiologic and pathologic evidence ac-cumulated during the 1918-19 pandemic estab-lished the probable bacterial etiology of most in-fluenza fatalities. There were, however, many clinicians who insisted that certain patients died of fulminating illness unassociated with known bacterial pathogens. This impression received support in the studies of Goodpasture who pre-sented pathologic evidence of a diffuse hemor-rhagic pneumonia in two patients which was un-associated with the demonstrable presence of bac-teria (2). The pandemic of 1918-19 antedated the first recognition of the influenza A virus (Smith, An-

Source: Journal of Clinical Investigation

DOI: 10.1172/jci103791

Authors: Donald B. Louria, Herbert L. Blumenfeld, John T. Ellis, Edwin D. Kilbourne, David E. Rogers

Institution: Weill Cornell Medical Center

Language: English

Topic: Influenza Virus Research Studies

Subfield: Epidemiology

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: Pfizer, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases