Clearing the Air Around Influenza
A brief history of discovery
This post is an update and summary of several TTE posts including a history of influenza
The very definition of what ”influenza” means has always exercised the minds of researchers. A clear case definition is essential to know that we are all writing, thinking and talking of the same entity. Dr Henry Parsons 1890, devised a simple six-question questionnaire sent to 1777 sanitary districts to gather epidemiological information on influenza. Parsons got 1150 responses, and his first response was “bewilderment. There is scarcely a single proposition made which was not contradicted by different observers”. So, what is this influenza? How do you define it? How can it spread so quickly?” In 1800, some took the speed of spread as an indication of a vast miasmatic cloud of influenza drifting through Europe, alighting when conditions were favourable. This was known as contingent contagionism
John Snow, Asiatic Cholera and the inductive-deductive method - republished
Last week, we discussed what was known about the spread of Asiatic Cholera, Snow’s observation of the incubation period, and the problems with defining numerators and denominators. In today’s post, we will describe the competing theories on the origin and spread of infectious diseases that existed in Snow’s time. In the next post, we will learn about d…
After the great “Russian” pandemic and recrudescence of 1889-1894, influenza began attracting attention …
