you know, if your post goes into more detail on the flip side, you should probably indicate that more clearly :p
Evil Monkey | 10.03.05 - 1:12 pm | #

Good point. Added that.
Tara | 10.03.05 - 1:53 pm | #

May we link youer series at Flu Wiki? Well done!
DemFromCT | Homepage | 10.03.05 - 2:17 pm | #

Sure, feel free.
Tara | 10.03.05 - 2:26 pm | #

Where do flu viruses go during the summer? In other words, why do we only have flu season during the winter? Is it really just because we are all indoors more spreading it around? I hope you'll address this in upcoming articles.
Frumious Bandersnatch | 10.04.05 - 2:42 pm | #

Hi,

No, I probably won't address that, since that's more of a "basic biology" issue. The truth is, we really don't know for certain. They don't "go away;" influenza infections definitely occur year-round. This is the case in other animals, as well. In humans, influenza disease is simply more common during the colder months. Is it because the infections are more frequently symptomatic? Is it because the virus is hardier at cooler temperatures? Is it because the oft-cited "you're inside and around people more in closed environments?" It's probably a bit of all of those, along with other factors we're not aware of.
Tara | 10.04.05 - 2:48 pm | #

Epidemics of influenza were tracked and described in considerable detail in the eighteenth century. There were large epidemics in Britain in 1729-30, 1732-3, 1758, 1762, 1767, 1775, 1782, 1788 and 1803. By the later 18c physicians were arguing over whether influenza was contagious. Most of the epidemics were comparatively mild; 1782 was a major pandemic.

I wrote a couple of articles about influenza in 18c Britain; one, "The Conceptualization of Infuenza in Eighteenth-Century Britain" is in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine vol 67 (1993) 74-118. It includes a chart of contemporary accounts of epidemics.
Margaret DeLacy | 02.07.06 - 2:09 pm | #

Spanish flu was a vaccine disease helped by various drug use and industrial chemicals http://www.whale.to/v/spanish_flu.html

If you look at just one vaccine, smallpox, in the Phillipines 1920, you should get some idea about the effect of 8 http://www.whale.to/vaccines/sma.../ smallpox7.html, and 96,684 men were invalided out from Gallipoli with enteric disease caused, no doubt, by the typhoid vaccine
john | Homepage | 05.12.06 - 12:15 pm | #

Nicely put together. One of the better brief synopses of recent influenza history I've seen on the topic.
Scatter Health | Homepage | 03.18.08 - 11:27 pm | #