![]() We now know that this virus was a direct descendant of the 1918 flu. However, an H1N1 virus appeared the following year (perhaps escaped from a laboratory) causing the "Russian" flu. For this reason, when an H1N1 virus appeared in a few recruits at Fort Dix in New Jersey in 1976, it triggered a massive immunization program (which turned out not to be needed). Until 2009, these data suggest that flu pandemics occur when the virus acquires a new hemagglutinin and/or neuraminidase. The hemagglutinin of the 1918 flu virus was H1, its neuraminidase was N1, so it is designated as an H1N1 "subtype". But the availability of antibiotics to treat the secondary infections that are the usual cause of death resulted in a much lower death rate. The pandemic of 1957 probably made more people sick than the one of 1918. the "Swine" flu pandemic that began in April of 2009.Three pandemics of influenza have swept the world since the "Spanish" flu of 1918. ![]() Before the discovery of the flu virus, the bacterium Hemophilus influenzae was so often associated with the disease that it gave it its name. It usually does not kill the patient (the 1918 pandemic was an exception some victims died within hours) but does expose the lungs to infection by various bacterial invaders that can be lethal.
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