Talk:Spanish flu research

The spanish flu also known as influenza had a major break out in australia in 1918. It took place during "THE GREAT WAR" or World war 1 (WW1) and spread quickly throughout the world. --202.72.35.26 04:43, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

2 or 3 waves in the Spanish Flu -- second wave was the deadly one
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/world/americas/26flu.html?em -- another source about the waves.

Important, because cities that caught the first, milder wave were protected when the later deadly wave came. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.3.11.131 (talk) 02:17, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Origins of the 1918 Pandemic: The Case for France
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5222069


 * John Oxford, a professor of virology at Queen Mary's School of Medicine in London, holds to a different theory: the British Empire nurtured the disease.


 * The British army had an enormous training camp set up in Etaples, France. On any given day, 100,000 soldiers were milling around. Many were on their way to World War I's Western Front; others, wounded, sick, and often prisoners, were on their way back. The camp had 24 hospitals alone and a team of fearful — but curious — pathologists. They recorded post mortems on everything that came their way. "They were worried, even at that stage, in 1916, about the possibility of infectious disease decimating the British army, as had happened in the past with typhus and cholera," says Oxford.


 * Then, just after the Battle of the Somme in the winter of 1916-1917, dozens of soldiers at the camp fell ill, complaining of aches, pains, cough and shortness of breath. Mortality was high at 40 percent, and some also had what later became known as a telltale sign of the killer flu: Their faces were tinged a peculiar lavender color, a condition known as heliotrope cyanosis.


 * Two months later, says Oxford, a similar outbreak was reported near London at Aldershot, site of one the biggest barracks in the army. Aldershot pathologists eventually published studies in The Lancet medical journal pinpointing the origin of the 1918 pandemic to Etaples and Aldershot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.3.11.131 (talk) 02:19, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Name of the virus
It might be useful to mention what name is used to refer specifically to the strain of H1N1 that caused the pandemic. cyclosarin (talk) 08:11, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Blood plasma as an effective treatment
Really? Antibody injections were the only reliable treatment?

French and Swiss doctors experimented with gelsemium semperivens during the first outbreak in 1917 and had impressive recovery rates. Apparently there were also some tests done in the USA. Use of antibodies is certainly one way to combat viruses, but it is not the only way. A simple Google search will show dozens of homeopathic references to the effectiveness of gelsemium semperivens against the Spanish Flu and as an effective anti-viral, both as a preventative and as a means to reduce the duration and severity of the disease. Bryonna albans is another that has had some efficacy. Homeopathy doesn't work for everyone (some estimates place it at about eighty percent but I'm not going to cite here), but it is effective enough that it is covered by social health in the United Kingdom.

Links here:

http://hpathy.com/homeopathy-papers/homeopathy-allopathy-and-the-1918-influenza-pandemic/

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Consequencies+of+the+spanish+flu

Granted, this is part of a larger issue about healthcare in general. People tend to forget that the only legal requirement for corporations operating in the USA is a positive bottom line on investment, and pharmaceutical companies do that by repeat business, not curing their patients. The fact that the FDA gets fifty percent of its funding from this industry has had an ultimately adverse effect on healthcare. There's a revolving door where pharmaceutical researchers go to work for the FDA and then back to the corporations. What's worse is that adverse clinical trials are often suppressed, at least until people start dying. Psychotropics on teenagers causing suicides or murders, anyone? Advantia causing heart attacks? It's not enough to have reputable sources; the sources need to be vetted as to whether their position and research are contaminated by a paycheck from the position they are supporting or attacking. I don't see that here.

DTavona (talk) 02:43, 22 June 2014 (UTC)