Published 15 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2398
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2398

Letters

A/H1N1 flu

Aspirin in the 1918 pandemic

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Aspirin may have enhanced the virulence of the flu virus in the 1918 pandemic, which has implications for A/H1N1 flu.¹

During the 18 months of the 1918-9 pandemic, 27 million people died worldwide, mortality being highest in the second wave, October 1918, especially in the United States. Age specific mortality followed a W curve, with high death rates in healthy young adults aged 20-40 as well as in children under 5 years old and people aged 65 and over. It was wartime and young men were crowded together in military camps, but the mortality was also high in men of the same age who remained at home.²

In September 1918 Rupert Blue, the US surgeon general, advised that flu could be controlled "only by intelligent action of the public." He added: "During the present outbreak in foreign countries, the salts of quinine and aspirin have been most generally used during . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Shimazu Clinic 31 Higashitakada-choJapan, Mibu, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan 604-8845

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