They discover why the influenza AH1N1 is deadly

• April 20, 2024

According to the magazine Nature Medicine an exaggerated response of the immune system generates a fatal lung damage that ends with the death of young people with the virus AH1N1 .

Unlike other flu, the virus AH1N1 It is not so fatal in elderly and chronically ill people, but in young and middle-aged adults who are in good health, a fact that intrigued scientists.

American and Argentine researchers believe that the key lies in the immune system of those affected. According to ABC Newspaper, the healthy adults who died during the 2009 pandemic did so for lung damage, caused by an exaggerated reaction of their natural defenses.

In this regard, the Spanish newspaper said: "The patients had antibodies prepared to defend themselves against other influenza viruses, although ineffective against the AH1N1 ”.

"The response of these non-protective antibodies against the new virus, caused an uncontrolled cascade of reactions that ended in a direct attack to the lungs."

In older adults

In older people this reaction did not occur because the virus that attacked the world in 2009 was very similar to the pandemic that attacked in 1956, so the immune system I could act correctly.

The children were kept under strict protection which prevented contact with the virus and therefore this reaction. The most serious cases requiring hospitalization and intensive care were in healthy people between 17 and 50 years old, the newspaper said.

The intensivist Todd Rice , from the Medical Center of Vanderbilt University, in the United States, investigated the cases of these patients and analyzed them with those of other experts from Argentina.

"It was impressive, the deterioration of these patients had never seen it before, we tried all kinds of treatments without success," Rice explained.

The study was done from the lung samples of 75 patients, 23 of these cases died and four were remains of 4 victims of the 1957 flu.

The mechanisms of overreaction of the immune system were similar in all cases so this research will be valid to manage future influenza pandemics.

(Source: El Universal.com.mx)

Video Medicine: 5 Warning Signs & Symptoms of H1N1 (April 2024).