Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It (Paperback)

by Gina Kolata (Author) "When the plague came, on those chilly days of autumn, some said it was a terrible new weapon of war..." (more)
Key Phrases: Hong Kong, Fort Dix, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Feeling tired, achy, and congested? You'll hope not after reading science writer Gina Kolata's engrossing Flu, a fascinating look at the 1918 epidemic that wiped out around 40 million people in less than a year and afflicted more than one of every four Americans. This tragedy, just on the heels of World War I and far more deadly, so traumatized the survivors that few would talk about it afterward. Kolata reports on the scientific investigation of this bizarre outbreak, in particular the attempts to sequence the virus' DNA from tissue samples of victims. She also looks at the social and personal effects of the disease, from improved public health awareness to the loss of productivity. (The disease affected 20- to 40-year-olds disproportionately.)

How could this disease, now almost trivial to healthy young people, have become so virulent? The answer is complex, invoking epidemiology, immunology, and even psychology, but Kolata cuts a swath through medical papers and statistical reports to tell a story of an out-of-control virus exploiting an exhausted world on the brink of transition into modern society. Through letters, interviews, and news reports, she pieces together a cautionary tale that captures the horror of a devastating illness. Research marches onward, but we're still at the mercy of something as simple as the flu. --Rob Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
"It was a plague so deadly that if a similar virus were to strike today, it would kill more people in a single year than heart disease, cancers, strokes, chronic pulmonary disease, AIDS and Alzheimer's disease combined." Between 20 million and 100 million people worldwide died in the 1918 flu pandemic, but for years afterward this deadliest plague in history was almost completely forgotten. Histories and even medical texts rarely mentioned it. This disconnect between the flu's devastation and its obscurity is the starting point for Kolata's incisive history. She explains how the plague spread, covers the various speculations about its causes and origins and gives an account of the search to retrieve a specimen of the virus strain once genetic science had advanced enough to unravel the virus's mysteries. Tissue samplesAfrom an obese woman buried in the permafrost of Alaska and from two soldiers who died in army campsApreserved by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in thumb-sized bits of paraffin prove to be the last remaining sources of the 1918 strain. Kolata, a science writer for the New York Times and author of Clone, profiles the scientists who tracked down these samples, follows their investigations and explains their conclusions. Could such a deadly flu appear again? Many scientists fear it could, hence their quick response to the 1997 outbreak of chicken flu in Hong Kong, which led to the slaughter of 1.2 million birds and, Kolata argues, averted another worldwide disaster. Clearly explaining both the science and the social toll of the pandemic, Kolata writes an admirable history and soberly spells out how the U.S. government is preparedAor unpreparedAfor a similar public health threat today. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1 edition (January 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743203984
• ISBN-13: 978-0743203982
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (125 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #53,125 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative read and a couple of adventure stories too, January 17, 2003

By	Michael Bird (Yorba Linda, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

First off, this book is some things and is not some things. It is very informative and was well researched, there are lots of footnotes at the end. Much of the chapters read as separate articles that could stand independently. What it is not is a novel like read similar to the story that appears in Hot Zone.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading and learning about the 1918 flu and about the modern researchers trying to find clues to what made that flu so deadly. If you are interested in knowing about that topic then I give this book a strong recommendation. If you are looking for a novel type page turner you'll probably be disappointed.

There was one situation that made the whole work worth reading to me, maybe because I have a weird sense of humor. That was the telling of two separate research expeditions into the frozen north to dig up bodies of people that had died of the 1918 flu. One team was filled with experts, used x-ray to search, spent years planning, spent tons of money, had tons of media present. Didn't get results, the bodies were too decomposed.

The other expedition was one guy with a pick. Well actually he got a few villagers to help him dig, but he spent only a few thousand of his own money and got results, real helpful results, in a couple of weeks.

I also found the detailing of a flu scare that happened in Hong Kong with a jump from chickens to humans a very interesting story. How that scare and the research that went into studying it and comparing that to the 1918 ordeal was fascinating.

There is a bit of information here about the politics of the Swine Flu panic in the 1970's and how the Ford administration dealt with it. Some of the same kinds of questions and issues are relevant today with all the threats of toxic warfare.

If you find the topic of the 1918 flu interesting and how it relates to modern day problems and solutions this book is a strong recommendation.

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars major disappointment, read barry's "the great influenza" instead, July 20, 2005

By	Jason (New Orleans) - See all my reviews

I've gotten pretty interested in this subject, and have read several books on the pandemic. John Barry's "The Great Influenza" is by far the best, a wonderfully written and driving narrative that also provides an enormous amount of important context that is woven into the story-- everything from the founding of Johns Hopkins Medical School and Wilson's presidency to an understanding of the interplay between the virus and the immune system. This also tells us much about what might happen right now, as we face the threat of a new pandemic. Crosby's book is excellent but a distinct second to Barry's, unless you're looking for tables of statistics, which barry doesn't have. This book, Gina Kolata's, is superficial tripe. Like a few other reviewers here, I think it reads like a newspaper story about the now-dated effort to extract the virus from frozen bodies, and tells you little or nothing about events in 1918 itself. If you wnat to read about trying to resurrect the virus a few years ago, neither Barry nor Crosby mention it. If you want to read about 1918, or learn about the science, get Barry's book. If you want statistics, get Crosby's.

64 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I WANT MY MONEY BACK, February 10, 2000

By	Miss Kitty (Concord, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It (Hardcover)

I was extremely disappointed in this book. For 2 years I have been gathering data from primary sources here in my county on the 1918 Epidemic and it's effects on our local history. I'm usually thrilled to find anything written on this subject. Ms. Kolata gets barely a passing grade for the first 4 1/2 chapters. Then she departs into a long rambling tale of the swine flu vaccine fiasco of the middle 1970's. None of which has anything to do with the mystery and mayhem of the 1918 pandemic. Several pages are consumed with biographical info on Dr.Hultin, while interesting it belongs elsewhere. Of the dozens of gifted men and women who have tackled this subject why focus on one or two for personal biographies? The author never seriously explores one of the burning questions, how did the virus travel around the world and arise everywhere at almost the same exact time? For the layperson (that would be me!)I believe it is more important to explore that question rather than to know exactly how to slice a tissue sample. If you read this book for the information on "the search for the virus that caused it", you will probably be satisfied. If you are looking to it for a history of what the pandemic was like and how it meshed with the world of 1918, you will no doubt be disappointed. In short, if you have never heard of the 1918 flu epidemic then you may be satisfied with this book. However if you have even a cursory knowledge of the subject you will probably wish like I do that you had spent your money on something else.