Approximately 50 million people died after being infected with Spanish flu during the 1918 pandemic. The high rate of infection and mortality among young people was one of the puzzling mysteries of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic. flu pandemic. Older adults are typically the most vulnerable during infectious disease outbreaks, but they have not been affected by the Spanish flu virus. A recent reconstruction of the timeline of dominant influenza strains dating back to the 19th century has offered a possible explanation for the severity of the 1918 influenza pandemic, particularly among young people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'? Get the original essay Flu strains can be identified by the proteins on the surface of the flu virus that allow it to enter and exit cells in your body. These proteins are hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. Hemagglutinin acts as the key to unlock the doors of the cell and allows the virus to enter the cell and begin using the cellular machinery to replicate. Then, neuraminidase is used to unlock the door from the inside and allow the replicated virus to leave the cell and infect other cells in the body. There are 16 hemagglutinin subtypes and 9 neuraminidase subtypes. Different combinations of these subtypes represent all the different strains of influenza and each of these subtypes has a number of different antigenic variants, leading to thousands of possible strains. Using preserved tissue samples, scientists constructed the genomes of the dominant influenza strains of the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting with the H1N1 subtype in 1830, N8 is thought to have inserted into the genome, and from 1847 to 1889 the dominant subtype was the H1N8 subtype. H3 entered the genome around 1889 and the H3N8 strain dominated for the next twelve years. H1 returned and the H1N8 subtype was dominant from 1900 to 1918, when N1 returned to the fold. A new strain of H1N1 was responsible for the 1918 pandemic. According to this timeline, the H1N1 subtype that was dominant from 1830 to 1847 would have exposed people to a strain of influenza similar to the strain of H1N1 responsible for the influenza pandemic. in 1918. 1918. The H1 subtype was also present in the dominant subtype from 1847 to 1889. Those born between 1830 and 1847, who would have been between 71 and 88 years old in 1918, would have been inoculated with the similar strain to which they were exposed as children. and young adults. Scientists hypothesize that this is why older people were mostly immune to the H1N1 strain that caused the 1918 pandemic. In contrast, young people were devastated by the flu in 1918. If l we look at the chronology of dominant influenza strains, between 1889 and 1900, the dominant influenza subtype was H3N8, which does not include any of the subtypes of the H1N1 subtype that caused the influenza pandemic. 1918. Lack of understanding of the immune systems of people born between these years with the H1N1 subtype is speculated by scientists to be the reason why the 20 to 40 age group experienced lower mortality rates disproportionately high during the 1918 pandemic. People born between 1889 and 1900, when the H3N8 subtype was dominant, fall almost directly into this age category in 1918. Another reason why young people with immune systems robust were hit so hard is that scientists identified the 1918 flu strain as causing a storm of,.