Young children's immune systems haven't encountered many germs before. "The immune responses to the [flu] virus have to be developed from scratch," Iwasaki said. Because a child's immune system has no memory of flu viruses, "the virus has the chance to multiply before the immune responses...
One unusual aspect of the 1918 flu was that it struck down many previously healthy, young people—a group normally resistant to this type of infectious illness—including a number ofWorld War Iservicemen. In fact, more U.S. soldiers died from the 1918 flu than were killed in battle during...
“In many communities, processing the loss of loved ones entails a series of rituals and rites and laying a person to rest in a respectful way,” Bristow says. “In many cities, the restrictions on public events meant that families and communities had those rites interrupted, so grieving didn...
The flu is arespiratory illnesscaused by theinfluenza virus. The flu is not the same as acold, although they share many of the same symptoms. The cold is caused by a differentvirus, and it tends to have milder symptoms than the flu. Colds are also less likely to cause serious complicati...
Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918 | Overview, History & Deaths from Chapter 1 / Lesson 39 11K Learn how long the Spanish Flu lasted. Explore the origin of the Spanish Flu, how it ended, and how many died from the Spanish Flu during the 1918 pandemic. Related...
Viruses that normally occur in birds cause bird flu, and there are many different strains. Some of these viruses can pass from birds to other animals, and most of them are mild. However, there have been several human outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Asia and Europe over the ...
Public health officials worry that herd immunity may have been too successful for its own good. Because all children were immunized in the past, many parents today haven't seen the effects of a widespread polio epidemic or a measles outbreak, diseases that still prevail in countries where vaccin...
Deadly outbreaks have plagued societies for centuries. But they can lead to medical breakthroughs—if we learn the right lessons from them.
” By June influenza reached from Algeria to New Zealand. Still, a 1927 study concluded, “In many parts of the world the first wave either was so faint as to be hardly perceptible or was altogether lacking...and was everywhere of a mild form.” Some experts argued that it was too ...
deaths from the 1918 Spanish flu, which infected about a third of the world’s population, arose from a “second wave” of infections, when troop movements during World War I undermined nations’ efforts to mitigate the disease by shuttering activity at home. So how to reopen for business ...