mission within families with children: incidence of symptomatic and asymptomatic infections.tion of adenovirus in clinical specimens by polymerase chain reaction and liquid-phase hybridization quantitated by time-resolved fl uorometry. al. Presence of specifi c viruses in the middle ear fl uids and respiratory secretions of young children with acute otitis media.manske RF Jr, Gern JE. Serial vi...

hanks and Brundage offer thought-provoking hypotheses about infl uenza pathogenesis during the catastrophic 1918–1919 pandemic (1). Although we neither agree nor disagree with their views, its central hypothesis of T-cell–mediated immunopathogenesis begs examination of past events in light of modern immunologic and virologic understanding. We also emphasize that effects of the pandemic virus sh...

Relatively little is known about the viral factors contributing to the lethality of the 1918 pandemic, although its unparalleled virulence was likely due in part to the newly discovered PB1-F2 protein. This protein, while unnecessary for replication, increases apoptosis in monocytes, alters viral polymerase activity in vitro, enhances inflammation and increases secondary pneumonia in vivo. Howe...

The 1918 to 1919 H1N1 influenza pandemic is among the most deadly events in recorded human history, having killed an estimated 50 to 100 million persons. Recent H5N1 avian influenza epizootics associated with sporadic human fatalities have heightened concern that a new influenza pandemic, one at least as lethal as that of 1918, could be developing. In early 2009, a novel pandemic H1N1 influenza...

Background.  Reanalysis of influenza survey data from 1918 to 1919 was done to obtain new insights into the geographic and host factors responsible for the various waves. Methods.  We analyzed the age- and sex-specific influenza morbidity, fatality, and mortality for the city of Baltimore and smaller towns and rural areas of Maryland and the city of Bergen (Norway), using survey data. The Maryl...

The remarkable infectivity and virulence of the 1918 influenza virus resulted in an unprecedented pandemic, raising the question of whether it is possible to develop protective immunity to this virus and whether immune evasion may have contributed to its spread. Here, we report that the highly lethal 1918 virus is susceptible to immune protection by a preventive vaccine, and we define its mecha...