Full Description
The Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918-19 was the worst pandemic of modern times, claiming over 30 million lives in less than six months. In the hardest hit societies, everything else was put aside in a bid to cope with its ravages. It left millions orphaned and medical science desperate to find its cause. Despite the magnitude of its impact, few scholarly attempts have been made to examine this calamity in its many-sided complexity.
On a global, multidisciplinary scale, the book seeks to apply the insights of a wide range of social and medical sciences to an investigation of the pandemic. Topics covered include the historiography of the pandemic, its virology, the enormous demographic impact, the medical and governmental responses it elicited, and its long-term effects, particularly the recent attempts to identify the precise causative virus from specimens taken from flu victims in 1918, or victims buried in the Arctic permafrost at that time.
Contents
Introduction, Howard Phillips, David Killingray; Part 1 Part I Virological and pathological perspectives; Chapter 1 A virologist's perspective on the 1918-19 pandemic, Edwin D. Kilbourne; Chapter 2 Genetic characterisation of the 1918 'Spanish' influenza virus, Jeffery K. Taubenberger; Part II Part II Contemporary medical and nursing perspectives; Chapter 3 The plague that was not allowed to happen, Wilfried Witte; Chapter 4 'You can't do anything for influenza', Nancy K. Bristow; Part III Part III Official responses to the pandemic; Chapter 5 Japan and New Zealand in the 1918 influenza pandemic, Geoffrey W. Rice; Chapter 6 Coping with the influenza pandemic, Mridula Ramanna; Part 4 Part IV The demographic impact; Chapter 7 Spanish influenza in China, 1918-20, Wataru Iijima; Chapter 8 Flu downunder, Kevin McCracken, Peter Curson; Chapter 9 The overshadowed killer, N.P.A.S. Johnson; Chapter 10 Death in winter, D. Ann Herring, Lisa Sattenspiel; Chapter 11 Spanish influenza seen from Spain, Beatriz Echeverri; Chapter 12 A holocaust in a holocaust, Patrick Zylberman; Chapter 13 Long-term effects of the 1918 'Spanish' influenza epidemic on sex differentials of mortality in the USA, Andrew Noymer, Michel Garenne; Part 5 Part V Long-term consequences and memories; Chapter 14 'A fierce hunger', James G. Ellison; Chapter 15 'The dog that did not bark', Myron Echenberg; Part 6 Part VI Epidemiological lessons of the pandemic; Chapter 16 Transmission of, and protection against, influenza, Stephen C. Schoenbaum; Notes; Bibliography, Jürgen Müller; Index;
