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Blogs by David W. Page
The Flu Season is Almost Over 4/4/2019 12:48:25 PM
What's the status of our ability to handle a big flu epidemic next time? It's the centennial of the 1918 influenza pandemic that was estimated to have killed between 50 and 100 million people around the globe. Thus, it was probably the deadliest medical disaster in recorded history. It killed about 675,000 Americans. Studies have discovered RNA sequences and autopsies revealed the aggressiveness of the bacterial pneumonia that is virus-induced in most flu deaths. The gene sequences persist in waterfowl viruses and will no doubt pose a threat of catastrophic pandemics in the future. And the bronchopneumonia that kills most patients progresses so rapidly that systemic antibiotics are not very useful. So, it is the early identification of secondary bacterial pneumonia that needs to be addressed that hasn't to date. Imagine if suddenly next flu season one or two million flu patients all need intensive care lung ventilation at the same time. We don't have the capacity. So we need to identify the high risk groups such as infants, the elderly, those with chronic illnesses and pregnant women. (D.M. Morens et al, NEJM, vol.379, no. 24., 2019)
