WW1 records.....

[DavidWW]

I'm only a few pages into John M Barry's "The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History" but I'd imagine that this book would answer most or at least many questions .........

David

[GailMc]

Thanks for all the info.

It was along shot about the Downies!

Gail

[Margaret]

Hello to all
Just wanted to let you all know that the postie arrived and I now have a copy of my Dad's WW1 records. Some are not so easy to read but others ok, the thing is it is wonderful to have them and to be able to pass them on to my son. Once again many many thanks for all the help, that is one more piece of the family history that has come together.

[StewL]

Very pleased to hear you got the information Margaret

[Montrose Budie]

Thanks for the info guys. Stewie you mentioned the 'flu as being around in May 1918, my William John Robertson died in April - do you know if "Spanish 'flu" was around that early in the year? He was still a young man at 38 and as you say it seemed to go for the young and fit!

I also noticed that you are looking for Downies. I have an Isabella Downie in my ancestry and she is one of my brickwalls at present. She married James Pennycook in 1825 in Kettins - any connection at all?

Gail

Have now finished the book mentioned in my alter ego's post.

The big problem with those aged 25 to 35 was the incredibly strong and overwhelming immune system reaction which was so strong that it led to the death of a much higher proportion in this age group.

David

[Montrose Budie]

Thanks for the info guys. Stewie you mentioned the 'flu as being around in May 1918, my William John Robertson died in April - do you know if "Spanish 'flu" was around that early in the year? He was still a young man at 38 and as you say it seemed to go for the young and fit!

I also noticed that you are looking for Downies. I have an Isabella Downie in my ancestry and she is one of my brickwalls at present. She married James Pennycook in 1825 in Kettins - any connection at all?

Gail

It all depends on the where........ Most areas/countries experienced 2 or 3 outbreaks over a period of 12/18 months, although there were places in the worlds were there were 4 phases.

Fortunately, many of the intitial phases and the later phases involved a version of the virus that was less strong or had become attenuated, - viruses evolve very quickly, but will most often tend to become less virulent with time, - "reverting to the average", or something like that is the technical term.

That written, in some places, it was the experience in a small number of countries/places that it was the 3rd or fourth phase of infection that was the most virulent. See the book I've referenced for places and date and routes of infection.

The influenza virus is one of the cleverest we b*****s about in terms of its ability to change its outside coating of proteins so that a vaccine from a year ago no longer causes it a problem.

Subsequent epdemiological studies come up with a worldwide death toll for this influenza pandemic of somehave where between 50 (fifty) and 100 (one hundred) million........... Scale that up to the present day world population, and factor in the much quicker, wider spread that would result from air travel, and it could be the case that modern treatments, antibiotics for secondary infections (which were a major cause of death in 1917/18/19), together with the developing number of effective anti-viral drugs might not make that much difference.

The really frightening aspect of a modern day repeat of the incredibly powerful and damaging influenza virus in 1918 is that, until and unless such a virus surfaces it is not possible to create a specific vaccine ................ and that takes time.

The saving grace might just be continuing work on vaccines that attack the virus protein coats in radically different ways compared with vaccines in the last few decades.

David