Influenza A virus subtype H1N1#Russian flu

The so-called Russian flu was caused by an influenza virus of subtype H1N1, which had already claimed in 1918 a pandemic, called Spanish flu caused. Was first isolated the variant of the virus in May 1977 in northern China, until January 1978, had spread around the world.

Affected by the wave of illness ( epidemic ) were especially children, adolescents and young adults under 23 years. This is from the experts attributed to the fact that from 1918 H1N1 was prevalent worldwide and was only in 1957, replaced by the subtype A/H2N2, the causative agent of the Asian flu. Many had been born before 1957, therefore, previously exposed to this subtype and thus had some level of immune protection, but not after 1957 infants. Since the wave of illness was limited to young people, it is usually not classified as a pandemic.

The subtype of 1977 was the subtype from the years before 1957 so similar that quickly the presumption arose that the virus mid -1970s, escaped from a Russian or Chinese laboratory. The small number of variations (mutations ) in his possession one could only be explained that the virus literally was frozen for decades. This thesis was of 1992, the renowned influenza researcher Robert Webster.

The H1N1 genome of the " Spanish flu " was reconstructed in 2005 by a working group led by Jeffery Taubenberger.

Russian flu of 1889/90

The great pandemic of 1889 /90 at the time also mentioned in the newspapers and later in the literature Russian flu, but caused by a different subtype.