1918 flu-- humans developed immunity-- but what about the Avian flu NOW?

[FogerRox]

OK- the 1918 Flu was a from a Bird flu-- it was a mutation, that crossed over to humans-- right--- the folks who didnt die, ended up with immunity.

SO if the current Bird flu decides to mutate- and wants to cross over to humans-- how much immunity left over from the 1918 flu would be around? ANd if there is immunity- even a weak one, handed down thru the generations, wouldnt this mitigate the current scare of a pandemic?

In fact might this suggest that a new Bird flu would have to mutate in a vastly different way, to be able to rise to pandemic levels in Humans?

[SheilaT]

1. It's not actually clear to what

extent humans developed immunity, or if that particular virus simply disappeared.

[ret5hd]

2. i think you are discounting...

the mutation of the 1918 version of the flu to a less virulent strain once the particular conditions of the tiem passed (WW1 and the resultant close contact and movement of people) and forced the virus to a less deadlt strain.

nevertheless, i understand what you are saying.

[TahitiNut]

3. An antigen-based immunity isn't inheritable.

:shrug: I've heard nothing to indicate that there are 'natural' (i.e. natural selection, genotypical) immunities to viruses.

[Spinzonner]

6. Some people are immune to the effects of HIV

due to genetic differences.

And a PBS program about a study linked one form to people who were resistant to Bubonic Plague

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_plague/

[mcscajun]

4. Every flu is a brand new virus...you have no immunity to it.

All the Avian Flu needs to do is mutate, not in a vastly different way, just in a way that enables human-to-human transmission. One way for the virus to accomplish that (but by no means the only way) is for the virus to take on a host human that has already contracted one of the garden-variety influenza strains that already has human-to-human transmission ability. If a person has both strains simultaneously, that person could provide the perfect environment for the strains to recombine and spread.

Just 'cause Bush is crying "Flu! Flu! Only I can save you!" for his own purposes, we shouldn't discount the real risks.

We can count on 'advances in modern medicine' to negate much of the mortality, but then again, we have antibiotic-resistant bacteria to deal with. Why do bacteria come into play? Because many of the deaths in the 1918 pandemic were from secondary infections caused by bacteria in already viral-weakened people, in the age before antibiotics.

[kestrel91316]

5. Nope. Wrong assumptions and bad info.

The 1918 flu is another antigenic type (H?N?) than the current Avian Flu (H5N1). They are only related in that they are both influenzas that are primarily bird viruses. Sort of cousins.

The 1918 flu's descendants have stayed around, in gradually altering form, and are still with us today. They constantly circulate in the human population and we all have pretty good immunity to them. So if somebody released that recreated 1918 bug into the human population, it wouldn't do much. Been there, done that.

The current H5N1 Avian Flu is COMPLETELY NEW to humans. We have, as a population, never been exposed to anything with its particular antigenic mix. So we are sitting ducks if it mutates into a form that spreads readily from person-to-person (though this would undoubtably be accompanied by an unknown degree of attenuation and decreased mortality for us).