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1918 -- atypical pneumonia "fast and deadly" spreading in South East Asia
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 21:20:05 -0500
There is a danger that bears worrying about. We have ~ 300,000 troops in the Iraq area most likely clustered together. If that new bug is at all contagious, it could cause a major decrease in our capabilities and maybe major loses. No matter what you may think of the Iraq situation, it is worrisome that history could repeat itself . The sooner we find out what the illness is caused by , the better we will all be. Dave ------ Forwarded Message From: chodge5 () utk edu Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 20:15:41 -0500 (EST) To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net> Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com> Subject: Re: [IP] : atypical pneumonia "fast and deadly" spreading in South East Asia Some boilerplate on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic from http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/influenza.htm: Initially the outbreak, which began in the Middle East in the spring of 1918 before reaching the Western Front shortly afterwards, took on a mild form. However by the summer up to a third of influenza sufferers reported increasingly harsh symptoms, including bronchial pneumonia, heliotrope cyanosis and septicemic blood poisoning. A sizeable number died of their symptoms. The pandemic inevitably had military consequences although a far higher number of civilian casualties were suffered. The virus swept across German, Austro-Hungarian and Turkish battle lines prior to reaching France, thereby crucially inflicting casualties through sickness at a time when Germany and her allies could ill-afford such losses. Quantifying the effects of such losses at a time of increasing Allied successes on the battlefield is however problematic. By the autumn the virus had spread across the Atlantic to the U.S.A. via military ships. Often the symptoms of a brief fever of short duration was followed abruptly by death. So quickly did the strain overwhelm the body's natural defences that the usual cause of death in influenza patients - a secondary infection of lethal pneumonia - was often not present. Instead, the virus caused an uncontrollable haemorrhaging that filled the lungs, and patients would drown in their own body fluids. ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- 1918 -- atypical pneumonia "fast and deadly" spreading in South East Asia Dave Farber (Mar 16)