Protective immunity and susceptibility to infectious diseases: lessons from the 1918 influenza pandemic

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Rafi Ahmed, Emory University; Michael B. A. Oldstone, The Scripps Research Institute; Peter Palese, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
• Language: English
• Date: 2007-11-01
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2007 Nature Publishing Group
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ni1530
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Nature Immunology
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 11
• Start Page: 1188
• End Page: 1193
• Grant/Funding Information: None declared
• Keywords: Smallpox vaccination; Mortality; Immunological response; Regulatory T cells; Plasma cells; Chronic viral infection; B-cell; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Particle vaccine; Humoral immunity; Science & Technology; Immunology; Virus
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Immunology; Health Sciences, Epidemiology; Health Sciences, Public Health; Biology, Cell

Abstract

The influenza pandemic of 1918 killed nearly 50 million people worldwide and was characterized by an atypical W-shaped mortality curve, where adults between the ages of 30-60 years fared better than younger adults aged 18-30 years. In this review, we will discuss why this influenza virus strain was so virulent and how immunological memory to the 1918 virus may have shaped the W mortality curve. We will end on the topic of the 'honeymoon' period of infectious diseases - the clinically documented period between the ages of 4-13 years during which children demonstrate less morbidity and/or mortality to infectious diseases, in general, compared with young adults.