title: Reconstruction of the 1918 influenza virus: unexpected rewards from the past.
abstract: The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed approximately 50 million people. The unusually severe morbidity and mortality associated with the pandemic spurred physicians and scientists to isolate the etiologic agent, but the virus was not isolated in 1918. In 1996, it became possible to recover and sequence highly degraded fragments of influenza viral RNA retained in preserved tissues from several 1918 victims. These viral RNA sequences eventually permitted reconstruction of the complete 1918 virus, which has yielded, almost a century after the deaths of its victims, novel insights into influenza virus biology and pathogenesis and has provided important information about how to prevent and control future pandemics.
authors.affiliation: Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. taubenbergerj@niaid.nih.gov
authors.forename: Jeffery K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Taubenberger
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Baltimore
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Doherty
authors.forename: Howard
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Markel
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Morens
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Webster
authors.forename: Ian A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000266:history / Q000821:virology*; D058873:Pandemics / Q000266:history