Sally Furniss
Well-known member
Spanish flu survivor's blood may help develop bird flu vaccine
CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press
BUFFALO, N.Y. - A 92-year-old woman who survived the Spanish flu in 1918 has given 10 vials of her blood to California medical researchers who are trying to develop more effective vaccines against bird flu.
Dorothy Horsch was in kindergarten when she contracted the illness, which killed 20 to 40 million people worldwide.
"My mother and father and sister and I, all four of us had it, and all four of us survived," she said Friday. That was a miracle."
"All we did was lay in bed. I don't remember eating," said Horsch, whose mother hung a camphor bag around her neck to ward off germs as schools and businesses closed.
She drifted in and out of consciousness with fever; she doesn't know for how long. The family eventually recovered, helped by twice-daily house calls from their doctor.
Horsch's blood will be part of a catalog of blood and bone marrow samples being compiled by Sea Lane Biotechnologies, a Menlo Park, Calif., company that hopes to track changes in the virus that might help develop better vaccines.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/14622906.htm
"We're looking at the different human responses to the various flus over the course of history," said Michael Horowitz, general counsel for the company.
The goal, Horowitz said, is to obtain samples of antibodies produced by the survivors that allowed them to fight off the infection and then zero in on the most effective ones
CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press
BUFFALO, N.Y. - A 92-year-old woman who survived the Spanish flu in 1918 has given 10 vials of her blood to California medical researchers who are trying to develop more effective vaccines against bird flu.
Dorothy Horsch was in kindergarten when she contracted the illness, which killed 20 to 40 million people worldwide.
"My mother and father and sister and I, all four of us had it, and all four of us survived," she said Friday. That was a miracle."
"All we did was lay in bed. I don't remember eating," said Horsch, whose mother hung a camphor bag around her neck to ward off germs as schools and businesses closed.
She drifted in and out of consciousness with fever; she doesn't know for how long. The family eventually recovered, helped by twice-daily house calls from their doctor.
Horsch's blood will be part of a catalog of blood and bone marrow samples being compiled by Sea Lane Biotechnologies, a Menlo Park, Calif., company that hopes to track changes in the virus that might help develop better vaccines.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/14622906.htm
"We're looking at the different human responses to the various flus over the course of history," said Michael Horowitz, general counsel for the company.
The goal, Horowitz said, is to obtain samples of antibodies produced by the survivors that allowed them to fight off the infection and then zero in on the most effective ones