The Lethal Spanish Influenza Pandemic in Poland

• Published in: Medical Science Monitor
• Main Authors: Grabowski, Marek L., Kosińska, Bożena, Knap, Józef P., Brydak, Lidia B.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: International Scientific Literature, Inc. 2017
• Subjects: Special Reports; Alaska; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5649514/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29021518; https://doi.org/10.12659/MSM.906280

The Spanish influenza pandemic in the years 1918–1920 was the largest and most tragic pandemic of infectious disease in human history. Deciphering the structure of the virus (including the determination of complete genome sequence) of this pandemic and the phylogenetic analysis and explanation of its virulence became possible thanks to molecular genetic analysis of the virus isolated from the fixed and frozen lung tissue of influenza victims who died in 1918 and were buried frozen in Alaska and Spitsbergen. Epidemiological data from the course of this pandemic in Poland have not been previously published.