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http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/..._influenza.pdf
At the end of the biological theories was this:
NATIONAL CENTER FOR CASE STUDY TEACHING IN SCIENCE
Why Was the 1918 Influenza So Deadly?
An Intimate Debate Case
by
Annie Prud?homme-G?n?reux and Carmen Petrick
Life Sciences
Quest University Canada
...
Was there something special about the biology of the 1918 influenza virus that made it particularly virulent and deadly? Or did the conditions in which people lived at the end of the First World War exacerbate a viral strain that would otherwise have been only mildly virulent? In this intimate debate, you will explore some of the evidence that points to a biological or a geopolitical-socioeconomic explanation for the devastation of the 1918 epidemic. Your goal is to understand these factors and to evaluate which are most likely to have affected the spread and severity of the 1918 influenza. You will be provided with a document containing a list of arguments for one side, (biological or geopolitical-socioeconomic explanation for the pandemic?s severity)....
Why Was the 1918 Influenza So Deadly?
An Intimate Debate Case
by
Annie Prud?homme-G?n?reux and Carmen Petrick
Life Sciences
Quest University Canada
...
Was there something special about the biology of the 1918 influenza virus that made it particularly virulent and deadly? Or did the conditions in which people lived at the end of the First World War exacerbate a viral strain that would otherwise have been only mildly virulent? In this intimate debate, you will explore some of the evidence that points to a biological or a geopolitical-socioeconomic explanation for the devastation of the 1918 epidemic. Your goal is to understand these factors and to evaluate which are most likely to have affected the spread and severity of the 1918 influenza. You will be provided with a document containing a list of arguments for one side, (biological or geopolitical-socioeconomic explanation for the pandemic?s severity)....
In his book Evolution of Infectious Diseases (1996), Paul Ewald hypothesizes that through our actions we can favor the evolution of infectious agents that are either more or less pathogenic. According to this idea, in a given population of pathogens, there exists variability. Some organisms will cause severe symptoms in their hosts, while others will occasion only mild symptoms. If a pathogen needs its host to spread (i.e., it cannot be spread by vehicle or vector transmission such as by contaminated water), then the health status of the host will play a part in the spread. If a host is infected with a particularly virulent pathogen, then that host is incapacitated, and the spread is halted. If a host is infected with a mild form of the pathogen, then the host can continue functioning, is more likely to be in contact with other potential hosts, and the pathogen is more likely to spread and replicate. Therefore, natural selection will favor strains that only mildly affect the host. However, there was a potential reversal of conditions during World War I. If a soldier on the war front was infected with a mild form of influenza, he stayed on the war front, only contaminating others around him. However, soldiers who were infected with a particularly virulent form of influenza were removed from the trenches and transport d in crowded troop trucks to crowded clinics or hospitals, giving the virus ample opportunities to infect many more hosts. Thus, the evolution of a virulent strain of influenza was favored, and this newly emerged pathogenic virus devastated the world (as reported in Gladwell, 1997).