I thought this was interesting in view of what's happening in the UK now with the increase of cases. She's no stranger to bad flu epidemics.
Surely someone has saved flu samples that can be sequenced (if they haven't by now). With the strange pattern, it seems that some researcher would want to be looking at the sequences to try to determine what caused it.
[snips that I found especially interesting]
In Liverpool, where the epidemic was said to originate, it was "the cause of the highest weekly death toll, apart from aerial bombardment, in the city's vital statistics records, since the great cholera epidemic of 1849". This weekly death toll even surpassed that of the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Influenza activity started to increase in Liverpool, England, in late December 1950. The weekly death rate reached a peak in mid-January 1951 that was ≈40% higher than the peak of the 1918–19 pandemic, reflecting a rapid and unprecedented increase in deaths, which lasted for ≈5 weeks.
For Canada, the first report of influenza illness came the third week of January from Grand Falls, Newfoundland. Within a week, the epidemic had reached the eastern provinces, and influenza subsequently spread rapidly westward.
For the United States, substantial increases in influenza illness and excess deaths were reported in New England from February to April 1951, at a level unprecedented since the severe 1943-44 influenza season. Much milder epidemics occurred later in the spring elsewhere in the country.
Local disparities were found in all 3 countries, with a consistent pattern of higher numbers of deaths in locations affected earlier.
Surely someone has saved flu samples that can be sequenced (if they haven't by now). With the strange pattern, it seems that some researcher would want to be looking at the sequences to try to determine what caused it.
[snips that I found especially interesting]
In Liverpool, where the epidemic was said to originate, it was "the cause of the highest weekly death toll, apart from aerial bombardment, in the city's vital statistics records, since the great cholera epidemic of 1849". This weekly death toll even surpassed that of the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Influenza activity started to increase in Liverpool, England, in late December 1950. The weekly death rate reached a peak in mid-January 1951 that was ≈40% higher than the peak of the 1918–19 pandemic, reflecting a rapid and unprecedented increase in deaths, which lasted for ≈5 weeks.
For Canada, the first report of influenza illness came the third week of January from Grand Falls, Newfoundland. Within a week, the epidemic had reached the eastern provinces, and influenza subsequently spread rapidly westward.
For the United States, substantial increases in influenza illness and excess deaths were reported in New England from February to April 1951, at a level unprecedented since the severe 1943-44 influenza season. Much milder epidemics occurred later in the spring elsewhere in the country.
Local disparities were found in all 3 countries, with a consistent pattern of higher numbers of deaths in locations affected earlier.