Influenza: The Hundred-Year Hunt to Cure the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic

by Jeremy Brown

Overview

“Highlights that influenza is still a real and present threat and demonstrates the power and limitations of modern medicine.” —The Wall Street Journal

“A surprisingly compelling and accessible story of one of the world’s most deadly diseases. It is timely and interesting, engaging and sobering.” —David Gregort, CNN political analyst and former moderator for NBC’s Meet the Press

A veteran ER doctor explores the troubling, terrifying, and complex history and present-day research of the flu virus, from the origins of the Great Flu that killed millions, to vexing questions such as: are we prepared for the next epidemic, should you get a flu shot, and how close are we to finding a cure?

While influenza is now often thought of as a common but mild disease, it still kills more than thirty thousand people in the United States each year. Dr. Jeremy Brown, a veteran ER doctor and director of the Office of Emergency Care Research at the National Institutes of Health, talks with leading epidemiologists, policy makers, and the researcher who first sequenced the genetic building blocks of the original 1918 virus to offer both a comprehensive history and a road map to protect us from the next outbreak.

Dr. Brown explores the terrifying and complex history of the flu virus and looks at the controversy over vaccinations and the federal government’s role in preparing for pandemic outbreaks. Though a hundred years of advancement in medical research and technology have passed since the 1918 disaster, Dr. Brown warns that many of the most vital questions about the flu virus continue to confound even the leading experts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501181252
Publisher:	Atria Books
Publication date:	10/01/2019
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.38(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dr. Jeremy Brown trained at University College School of Medicine in London and completed his residency in emergency medicine in Boston. He was the Research Director in the Department of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University before moving to the National Institutes of Health, where he now directs its Office of Emergency Care Research. His opinion pieces have been published in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and he has written for Discover magazine.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Autumn 1

1 Enemas, Bloodletting, and Whiskey: Treating the Flu 9

2 The Jolly Rant: A History of the Virus 29

3 "Something Fierce": The Spanish Flu of 1918 43

4 "Am I Gonna Die?": Round Two, and Three, and Four … 67

5 Resurrecting the Flu 81

6 Data, Intuition, and Other Weapons of War 99

7 Your Evening Flu Forecast 119

8 The Fault in Our Stockpiles: Tamiflu and the Cure That Wasn't There 131

9 The Hunt for a Flu Vaccine 151

10 The Business of Flu 165

Epilogue 179

Acknowledgments 187

Notes 189

Bibliography 227

Index 241

Editorial Reviews

In Influenza, [Dr. Jeremy Brown] builds effectively on his clinical and scientific career, making the virus itself central to his story... highlights that influenza is still a real and present threat and demonstrates the power and limitations of modern medicine.”
—Wall Street Journal

“Influenza by Dr. Jeremy Brown vividly reminds us that the flu has been one of the great ravages of our time. Read this important and comprehensive book to learn what happened a century ago, and how we continue to try and overcome this ever-present and mutating killer.” —Sandeep Jauhar, New York Times bestselling author of Heart: A History

“The influenza pandemic of 1918 was responsible for an estimated 50–100 million deaths worldwide. A century later, ‘The flu is still a serial killer,’ writes emergency-medicine physician Brown... Brown smartly examines this viral infection from all sorts of angles—medical history, virology, diagnosis and treatment, economics and epidemiology‚ health-care policy, and prevention.”
—Starred Booklist

“Influenza tells a surprisingly compelling and accessible story of one of the world's most deadly diseases. It is timely and interesting, engaging and sobering.” —David Gregort, CNN Political Analyst and former moderator for NBC’s, Meet the Press

“Jeremy Brown, one of the country's leading emergency physicians, has written a terrific book. From the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 to our most recent outbreaks, he tells a gripping story that brings an entirely new perspective on our battle against influenza. Extensively researched and often humorous, it reminds us of the great strides modern medicine has made, and of the dangers that we still face each flu season.” —Gail D’Onofrio MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine, Yale School of Medicine

“Even now, a century after the great flu pandemic of 1918, which left an estimated 50 to 100 million people dead worldwide, there's still no cure, writes Brown, an ER veteran and director of the National Institutes of Health's Office of Emergency Care Research. In his debut, he traces the millions-of-years history of the virus, efforts to understand and treat it, and its many devastating outbreaks... A solid book of popular science.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Brown, director of the Office of Emergency Care Research at the National Institutes of Health, marks the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic with this no-nonsense account of medicine’s long battle against influenza. Brown recounts the ‘epic effort’ in the 1990s to resurrect and genetically decode the Spanish flu, which, in addition to triggering concern that “all this tinkering was creating superviruses,” underscored influenza’s elusiveness. As an experienced ER doctor, he also offers plain advice on dealing with the virus.”—Publishers Weekly

"A thoughtful portrait of an elusive enemy.”
—Nature.com

“An in-depth look at what scientists know now about the 1918 strain [and] a fascinating look at the factors that make the more common seasonal flu so challenging to predict and prevent... For those who want more science with a frank discussion of the challenges influenza still poses, Brown delivers a clear and captivating overview.”
—Science News

“Brown’s book is like an Agatha Christie novel, or a cold-case episode of some television drama. The crime has already been committed—in this case, a century ago—but the villain is still on the loose, still committing crimes, and somehow managing to evade the plods.” —The Sydney Morning Herald

“Although we know a lot more about the virus today, which kills 30,000 people in the U.S. annually, we do not know enough to stop the next pandemic. Brown argues that a critical preparatory step should be to place the 1918 pandemic in our collective memory as we have for wars and battles—perhaps with a physical memorial—to honor our losses and to remind us how much there is yet to do.” —Scientific American (Recommended Book)

“Laudably succinct but wide-ranging . . . [Brown] covers all aspects of the disease and its impact. He does so in such a way as to make everything comprehensible to the general reader, and I suspect that even many specialists will learn something that they did not know before.” —Literary Review (UK)

“Authoritative yet highly readable . . . Part science, part history, part politics and part expert advice, Influenza is exactly the book you want to read when you’re tucked up in bed feeling feverish.” —Mail on Sunday (UK)

From the Publisher

08/27/2018
Brown, director of the Office of Emergency Care Research at the National Institutes of Health, marks the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic with this no-nonsense account of medicine’s long battle against influenza. Brown recounts the “epic effort” in the 1990s to resurrect and genetically decode the Spanish flu, which, in addition to triggering concern that “all this tinkering was creating superviruses,” underscored influenza’s elusiveness. As an experienced ER doctor, he also offers plain advice on dealing with the virus, such as, “If you are a healthy person with run-of-the-mill flu, you should not ask for antibiotics,” since “antibiotics don’t fight viruses.” Shifting perspective from professional physician to epidemiologist, he discusses the failure of big data to signal flu outbreaks and reviews strategies for early flu detection including Google Flu Trends and FluTrackers.com, saying, “The influenza virus, a most primitive organism, seems to run circles around our advanced technology.” Critical of the pharmaceutical lobby’s role in creating flu scares, and skeptical of the U.S.’s “ vaccination for all” policy, Brown, with his clear message that human intellect is no match for viral ingenuity, adds a grim note to the stockpile of books on influenza. Agent: Michael Palgon, the Palgon Co. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

2018-09-17

The perplexing story of the flu, a virus that causes fevers and sore throats—and kills more than 30,000 Americans each year.

Even now, a century after the great flu pandemic of 1918, which left an estimated 50 to 100 million people dead worldwide, there's still no cure, writes Brown, an ER veteran and director of the National Institutes of Health's Office of Emergency Care Research. In his debut, he traces the millions-of-years history of the virus, efforts to understand and treat it, and its many devastating outbreaks. "We know its genetic code, how it mutates, and how it makes us sick, and yet we still don't have effective ways to fight it," he writes. The author begins with the 1918 pandemic—"a global health crisis that killed more people than any other illness in recorded history"—which probably began in France, or Kansas, or even China (we do not know), prompted many ineffective treatments (from enemas to bloodletting), and had the worst impact on the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. Found in humans and other species—and able to cross from animals to people, hence the "swine" and "avian" flu—the virus invades cells, reproduces, and moves on to colonize other victims. The 1918 outbreak occurred late in World War I and killed 675,000 Americans, spreading rapidly in crowded tenements, Army camps, and large War Bond rallies. Despite prohibitions, many people kept spitting in the streets. Most cases cured themselves (they still do); others disguised themselves from immune defenses. Antibiotics and preventive vaccines have helped in treatment, but there is no "safe and effective drug that can destroy the virus." Writing in a conversational style, Brown also covers the discovery of the 1918 virus in frozen victims, the hunt for vaccines, the collection of data, and American efforts to prepare for future outbreaks. One leading expert told him, "I've been thinking about the flu for twenty years, and I know nothing."

A solid book of popular science.

Kirkus Reviews