Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDoc
If you took the h1n1 and put it back in 1918, it would look like the same killer all over again.
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No, it wouldn't. The 1918 Spanish Flu was extremely deadly because it provoked an exaggerated immune response (a cytokine storm, to be exact), which was what ended up killing people. That's why the victims were mostly young, healthy people with great immune systems - the better your immune system, the more damage it could do to you.
The current strain of H1N1 does not provoke a similar immune response, and is therefore far less dangerous. It's most dangerous for people with weakened immune systems, and poses a rather small but real risk for healthy individuals.
The problem with the flu, however, is that it mutates rapidly. There's a very, very small chance that the current strain of H1N1 will mutate in a way that creates an effect similar to the one the 1918 Spanish Flu had. If that happens, it will do quite a bit of damage.