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Researchers learn from 1918 influenza pandemic
Infection Control Monitor, December 17, 2004
As health officials brace for what they believe is an overdue flu pandemic in the United States, they can learn lessons from the responses to the influenza pandemic that killed as many as 40 million people in 1918, a study in the science journal Nature reports.
Scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in Boston studied the deadly strain from 1918 and found that it was not as contagious as previously believed. A pandemic today could be controlled by vaccinations and preventing new infections, they concluded.
"We found that a case probably infected two to four other people and if we were to try and stop a similar pandemic, we would need to block half to three-quarters of transmissions either through vaccination or other measures like isolation," HSPH researcher Christina Mills told Reuters.
Although an achievable goal, scientists expressed concern that they don't currently have an adequate supply of flu vaccine to achieve it. The concern over a potential pandemic was heightened this fall when the United States lost half of its flu vaccine supply due to problems at a manufacturing plant in England.
In their research, HSPH scientists concluded that the 1918 influenza strain was no more contagious than many other diseases but still managed to kill millions of infected people.
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