Time from Illness Onset to Death, 1918 Influenza and Pneumococcal Pneumonia

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Keith P Klugman, Emory University; Christina Mills Astley, Children’s Hospital, Boston; Marc Lipsitch, Harvard
• Language: English
• Date: 2009-02
• Publisher: U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: Emerging Infectious Diseases is published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a U.S. Government agency. Therefore, all materials published in Emerging Infectious Diseases are in the public domain and can be used without permission.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/2/08-1208_article.htm
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Emerging Infectious Diseases
• ISSN: 1080-6040
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: 346
• End Page: 347
• Keywords: 1918; influenza; letter; pneumococcal; pneumonia; pandemic
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health; Health Sciences, General

Abstract

To the Editor: Brundage and Shanks have studied time to death from the onset of influenza symptoms during the 1918 pandemic in military and civilian populations and found a median time to death of 7–11 days. They argue that these data support the idea that the deaths may be predominantly due to bacterial superinfection after the acute phase of influenza. We observed a similar 10-day median time to death among soldiers dying of influenza in 1918, a finding consistent with the time to death for a bacterial superinfection, specifically pneumococcal bacteremic pneumonia.