Media Availability: NIH Scientists Find Earliest Known Evidence of 1918 Influenza Pandemic

Earliest Evidence of 1918 Flu Deaths Found in Autopsy Tissue

Examination of lung tissue and other autopsy material from 68 American soldiers who died of respiratory infections in 1918 has revealed that the influenza virus that eventually killed 50 million people worldwide was circulating in the United States at least four months before the 1918 influenza reached pandemic levels that fall.
Jeffery Taubenberger, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, led the research team. The scientists found proteins and genetic material from the 1918 influenza virus in specimens from 37 of the soldiers, including four who died between May and August 1918, months before the pandemic peaked. These four cases are the earliest 1918 pandemic cases they know to be documented anywhere in the world, the researchers say.
Read about the study http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2011/Pages/early1918deaths.aspx
Media Availability: NIH Scientists Find Earliest Known Evidence of 1918 Influenza Pandemic