Analysis of the remains of victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, contradicts the widely held belief that the flu disproportionately affected healthy young people.
Because so many people became sick so quickly, doctors at the time believed that healthy people were just as likely to die from the flu as those who were already sick or weak. However, despite extensive historical records, it turns out that there is no concrete scientific evidence to support this belief.
Now, a team of researchers from McMaster University and the University of Colorado Boulder (USA) has analyzed the age at death and studied the damage on the victims’ bones, reporting that those most at risk of dying from the flu People are already showing signs of previous environmental influences. , social and nutritional stress.
“Our environments (social, cultural and immunological) are intertwined and have always influenced how people live and die, even in the distant past,” said Amanda Way, lead author of the study published in the journal PNAS. Amanda Wissler explained.
«We saw this during covid-19, Our social and cultural background influences who is most likely to die and who is most likely to survive“, explain.
Most studies on the 1918 influenza pandemic are based on historical documents such as statistics, census data, and life insurance records, none of which include information about pre-existing conditions or the environment, diet, or other general chronic stressors that may affect the average person. source information. A lifetime of good health.
For the study, researchers examined 369 skeletal remains from the Harman-Todd Recorded Skeleton Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. All died between 1910 and 1938. The sample was divided into two groups: controls who died before the pandemic and controls who died during the pandemic.
A living person’s bone structure may undergo lasting changes due to poor health, resulting in decreased height, irregular growth, defects in tooth development, and other indicators.
The research team looked for signs of damage or stress on the lower legs of pandemic victims. New bone forms in response to inflammation caused by trauma or infection in the body, For example. Researchers can determine whether a lesion is active, healing, or completely healed, all of which provide evidence of the underlying condition.
As the covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated, racism and institutional discrimination can amplify these effects.
“By comparing who was injured and whether they were active or recovering at the time of death, we can get a sense of what we call frailty, or who was most likely to die. Our study shows that people with these active lesions are the most vulnerable ‘s,” said study co-author Sharon DeWitt, a biological anthropologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Past medical history, e.g. asthma or congestive heart failure, are common risk factors that can lead to adverse outcomes from infectious diseases such as influenza.
Researchers say these effects can be amplified by racism and institutional discrimination, as the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated.During this period Black Death In London, for example, people who had previously experienced environmental, nutritional, and disease stress were more likely to die from the plague than their healthy peers.
“The results of our work contradict contemporary narratives and anecdotes,” Wisler said.