Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory InvestigationsUniversity of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine
History
Studies on Epidemic Influenza: Comprising Clinical and Laboratory Investigations
University of Pittsburgh. School of Medicine
Influenza; Influenza Epidemic, 1918-1919
has been made during the four weeks’ period of the acute epidemic and
where the descriptions have been recorded by painstaking observers, the
similarity with our present findings is very striking. I would refer in
particular to one report made in 1893 in Petrograd by Kuskow. His report
deals with 40 carefully studied cases in which records both macroscopic
and microscopic were accurately made.
One of the great difficulties in placing an accurate interpretation upon
the pulmonary findings lies in the fact that true pneumonia as seen in
epidemic influenza in man has not been reproduced in animals.
Furthermore, as the majority of the fatal human cases of epidemic
influenza with their associated pneumonias present a mixed infection of
the lung tissues, it is difficult, if not impossible, to indicate the
lesions which have resulted through the activity of one of these as
against those induced by the other bacteria present. In our own
carefully studied cases wherein bacteriological cultures were taken from
every lung there was not a single instance in which the influenza
bacillus was present in pure culture. This is more fully commented upon
in the studies by Dr. Holman, but the point we wish to make here is the
difficulty in arriving at a conclusion in our material as to the actual
effects induced by any one type of organism. As it is fully discussed by
Dr. Holman we are convinced of the importance of the influenza bacillus
in this epidemic. We also appreciate that pneumonia lesions in animals
have been induced by a variety of materials gained from influenza
patients, but yet in view of the abnormal manner of producing such
lesions these are hardly comparable to those in man. We may well expect
severe œdema, inflammation and hemorrhage, if in guinea pigs, rabbits
and monkeys we introduce by intra-tracheal insufflation large quantities
of fluid suspensions of bacteria. And thus we find positive results
obtained by the use of a filtrable virus, streptococci, influenza
bacilli and other organisms. The lung is a sensitive tissue which quite
readily responds to a variety of irritants. In many respects some of
these lesions simulate those in influenza, but still we are far from the
conclusion that the disease, influenza, with all its manifestations has
been actually reproduced.
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