Russian flu 1977/1978

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As Russian Influenza one is influenza - epidemic called that occurred in 1977 and the 1978th Worldwide it claimed - depending on the source - 500,000–700,000 deaths.

Causation

It was caused by influenza viruses of the subtype A / H1N1 , the subtype that was also the cause of the Spanish flu in the years after 1918 . This subtype was first isolated in northern China in May 1977 , and by January 1978 it had spread worldwide.

Children, adolescents and young adults under 25 years of age were mainly affected by the “Russian flu”, during which the sick usually only developed mild symptoms.

The experts attribute this to the fact that A / H1N1 was predominant worldwide from 1918 onwards and was only replaced by the subtype A / H2N2 , the causative agent of Asian flu , in 1957 . Many born before 1957 had therefore already been exposed to this subtype and thus had a certain immune protection , but not those born after 1957. Since the wave of the disease was limited to young people, it is usually not classified as a pandemic .

The subtype A / H1N1 of the “Russian flu” was so similar to the subtype from the years before 1957 that the suspicion quickly arose that the virus had escaped from a Soviet or Chinese laboratory in the mid-1970s . The small number of deviations ( mutations ) in his genome can only be explained by the fact that the virus had literally been frozen for decades. The renowned influenza researcher Robert Webster advocated this thesis in 1992 .

The H1N1 genome of the "Spanish flu" was reconstructed in 2005 by a working group led by Jeffery Taubenberger .

The Russian flu of 1889/1890 was caused by a different subtype.

See also

literature

  • Joel O. Wertheim: The Re-Emergence of H1N1 Influenza Virus in 1977: A Cautionary Tale for Estimating Divergence Times Using Biologically Unrealistic Sampling Dates. In: PLoS One. Volume 5, No. 6, 2010; e11184, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0011184
  • Alan P. Kendal, Gary R. Noble, John J. Skehel, Walter R. Dowdle: Antigenic similarity of influenza A (H1N1) viruses from epidemics in 1977–1978 to “Scandinavian” strains isolated in epidemics of 1950–1951. In: Virology. Vol. 89, No. 2, 1978, pp. 632-636, doi: 10.1016 / 0042-6822 (78) 90207-6
  • C. Scholtissek, V. von Hoyningen, R. Rott: Genetic relatedness between the new 1977 epidemic strains (H1N1) of influenza and human influenza strains isolated between 1947 and 1957 (H1N1). In: Virology. Vol. 89, No. 2, 1978, pp. 613-617, doi: 10.1016 / 0042-6822 (78) 90203-9

Remarks

  1. ↑ With reference to the TASS news agency , German media reported in 2009 that there were 700,000 deaths: the worst flu pandemics of modern times. On: welt.de

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pandemics and Pandemic Threats since 1900. ( Memento of July 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) On: pandemicflu.gov .
  2. ↑ Pandemics & Threats 1900–2006 ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Heartland Kidney Network 12/06 QI (PDF)
  3. ^ Edwin D. Kilbourne: Influenza Pandemics of the 20th Century. In: Emerging Enfectious Diseases. Volume 12, No. 1, 2006, pp. 9-14, doi: 10.3201 / eid1201.051254
  4. ↑ Death from the laboratory. ( Memento from December 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Greenpeace magazine 1/2004
  5. ^ Robert G. Webster et al .: Evolution and Ecology of Influenza A viruses. In: Microbiology Reviews. Volume 56, No. 1, 1992, pp. 152-179, full text
  6. ^ Profiles: Robert Webster. Portrait in Nature Medicine , Volume 9, 2003, p. 1445, doi: 10.1038 / nm1203-1445
  7. ↑ Ann H. Reid et al .: Origin and evolution of the 1918 “Spanish” influenza virus hemagglutinin gene. In: PNAS . Volume 96, No. 4, 1999, pp. 1651-1656, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.96.4.1651
    Ann H. Reid et al .: Characterization of the 1918 “Spanish” influenza virus neuraminidase gene. In: PNAS. Volume 97, No. 12, 2000, pp. 6785-6790, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.100140097
    Christopher F. Basler et al .: Sequence of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus nonstructural gene (NS) segment and characterization of recombinant viruses bearing the 1918 NS recover. In: PNAS. Volume 98, No. 5, 2001, pp. 2746-2751, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.031575198
    Ann H. Reid et al .: Characterization of the 1918 'Spanish' influenza virus matrix gene segment. In: Journal of Virology. Volume 76, No. 21, 2002, pp. 10717-10723, doi: 10.1128 / JVI.76.21.10717-10723
    Ann H. Reid et al .: Novel origin of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus nucleoprotein gene. In: Journal of Virology. Volume 78, No. 22, 2004, pp. 12462-12470, doi: 10.1128 / JVI.78.22.12462-12470
    Jeffery K. Taubenberger el al .: Characterization of the 1918 influenza polymerase gene. In: Nature . Volume 437, 2005, pp. 889-893, doi: 10.1038 / nature04230