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Veteran journalist Gina Kolata's Flu:The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It presents a fascinating look at true story of the world's deadliest disease.
In 1918, the Great Flu Epidemic felled the young and healthy virtually overnight. An estimated forty million people died as the epidemic raged. Children were left orphaned and families were devastated. As many American soldiers were killed by the 1918 flu as were killed in battle during World War I. And no area of the globe was safe. Eskimos living in remote outposts in the frozen tundra were sickened and killed by the flu in such numbers that entire villages were wiped out. Scientists have recently rediscovered shards of the flu virus frozen in Alaska and preserved in scraps of tissue in a government warehouse. Gina Kolata, an acclaimed reporter for The New York Times, unravels the mystery of this lethal virus with the high drama of a great adventure story. Delving into the history of the flu and previous epidemics, detailing the science and the latest understanding of this mortal disease, Kolata addresses the prospects for a great epidemic recurring, and, most important, what can be done to prevent it.
A good account of the history of the 1918 worldwide influenza epidemic which was forgotten about for many years, perhaps because of the psychological impact on the survivors, coming as it did in the final phases of a terrible dragged-out war. The book includes firsthand accounts of the harrowing symptoms and mass deaths of, in the main, young healthy people. It then goes on to recount a short history of the discovery of viruses and how they operate, and the various individuals who have investigated them and tried to find preserved specimens of the 1918 virus to develop a vaccine against the threat of its return.
The book does flag a bit in the middle when it gets bogged down in the details of lawsuits and insurance claims arising from the 1976 mass vaccination programme in the USA, but on the whole it is a good account of the difficulties of combating the constantly variable influenza virus and the dilemma facing health care professionals and governmental officials: whether or not to vaccinate the population when a virus breaks out that looks serious - because it could turn out to be a false alarm costing a huge amount and risking side effects, but if you don't, it could be the return of a killer flu. The book does make clear what a no win situation this is. In summary, it is a good account of the 'forgotten epidemic' and the ongoing background threat of influenza. ( )
A fascinating story about the quest to find and decode the 1918 influenza virus. It's a bit outdated now, thanks to advances in science, but still a good and informative read. I only had two complaints: I wished for footnotes, rather than the endnotes that weren't easy to reference without superscript numbers, and I wished Kolata's telling was more of a timeline rather than individual's stories. The first is rather minor, but the second would have made it easier to keep track of the narrative and just when certain events happened. ( )
This isn’t really the story of the pandemic itself. There’s really only a chapter or two that goes into that. It’s mainly about the scientists trying to figure out what exact type of flu it was. Interesting, but not as interesting as it could have been. ( )
Oplysninger fra den engelske Almen VidenRedigér teksten, så den bliver dansk.
This is a detective story. Here was a mass murder that was around 80 years ago and who's never been brought to justice. And what we're trying to do is find the murderer. — Jeffrey Taubenberger, molecular pathologist
Tilegnelse
Oplysninger fra den engelske Almen VidenRedigér teksten, så den bliver dansk.
For my parents
Første ord
Oplysninger fra den engelske Almen VidenRedigér teksten, så den bliver dansk.
If anyone should have known about the 1918 flu, it was I.
Citater
Sidste ord
Oplysninger fra den engelske Almen VidenRedigér teksten, så den bliver dansk.
"Finishing the sequence of the 1918 virus is a good thing," Taubenberger says. "But we're nowhere near the end."
Veteran journalist Gina Kolata's Flu:The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It presents a fascinating look at true story of the world's deadliest disease.
In 1918, the Great Flu Epidemic felled the young and healthy virtually overnight. An estimated forty million people died as the epidemic raged. Children were left orphaned and families were devastated. As many American soldiers were killed by the 1918 flu as were killed in battle during World War I. And no area of the globe was safe. Eskimos living in remote outposts in the frozen tundra were sickened and killed by the flu in such numbers that entire villages were wiped out. Scientists have recently rediscovered shards of the flu virus frozen in Alaska and preserved in scraps of tissue in a government warehouse. Gina Kolata, an acclaimed reporter for The New York Times, unravels the mystery of this lethal virus with the high drama of a great adventure story. Delving into the history of the flu and previous epidemics, detailing the science and the latest understanding of this mortal disease, Kolata addresses the prospects for a great epidemic recurring, and, most important, what can be done to prevent it.
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The Great Influenza / Flu - SRH group read
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