Give up, virus!

Did the "mother" of all epidemics lurked in ambush? (1998)

Archival project "Radio Liberty this week 20 years ago." The most interesting and significant from the Archive of the Radio Freedom of twenty years ago. Incomplete story. Still living hopes. Could Russia go the other way?

Does humanity face a new pandemic similar to the Spaniard at the beginning of the 20th century? What is the influenza virus? Is it possible to protect yourself from the epidemic? These and other questions are answered by the professor, doctor Daniil Golubev, virusologist Yoshikhiro Kawaoka, microbiologist Jeffrey Taubenberger, virologist Yohim Holten. Author and presenter Marina Efimova. For the first time on April 2, 1998.

Marina Efimova : A year ago, in the summer of 1997, Dr. Wilina Lim, a young virologist in Hong Kong, received the blood of a three -year -old boy with a heavy flu for a test analysis from the province. Dr. Lim discovered that the sent virus corresponds to the usual type A, but in such a modification that does not fit any well -known standards. Generally speaking, such unidentified viruses modulations are, and when the case is single, they usually do not pay attention to this. But having learned that the boy had died in the flu, Dr. Lim sent a sample of the virus to Yan Dedzhong, a veteran-virusologist from Rotterdam, who, as she knew, collects a collection of rare modifications of influenza viruses. What was her amazement when a month later she was called from Rotterdam and warned that Dr. Dedzhong was about to fly and that he was already on the way. This is what Dr. Lim told reporters.

Announcer : I met Devzhong at the airport, and for the first time we exchanged handshake. Before that, we were familiar only by correspondence. "Do you know what you sent me?" he asked, and I realized that something out of the ordinary had happened. "You sent me n5." "I am not a veteran, but I know that N5 modulation is a modulation of the so -called chicken flu, which is not transmitted to a person." “If you haven’t made a mistake in your laboratory,” said Devzhong, “then it is transmitted.” I was so offended that instead of lunch I took Dedzhong immediately to the laboratory. I knew that I did not make a mistake. "

Marina Efimova : Already by the end of this day, August 11, 1997, Devzhong called America, Memphis, Tennessi, the oldest virus, a pandemic specialist, that is, the general, global epidemics of the influenza, Robert webster. Why exactly to him? About this - Dr. Daniil Golubev.

Daniil Golubev : Until now, not a single pandemic has been caused directly by the animal influenza viruses, and the question of whether they were able to be pandemic, and has always been more than controversial. Dr. Webster not only admits such an opportunity, but is absolutely sure of it. He is a supporter of the so -called zoone concept of the origin of pandemic flu viruses. In the Soviet Union of this concept, the famous virologist academician Zhdanov adhered to this concept, and now it is supported by academician Lviv. Another point of view has always been expressed by supporters of the anthroponous concept, that is, the theory that pandemia is caused only by purely human viruses. The viruses of animal flu can cause a disease of an individual, but they are not transmitted from humans to humans, and therefore cannot be pandemic. In the Soviet Union, this concept was developed by the academician of the currants, in England - Professor Hope Simpson.

Marina Efimova : What happened in Hong Kong in the summer of 1997?

Daniil Golubev : In Hong Kong there was a dangerous invasion of the human population of the AN5N1 chicken virus, which had never attacked a person before. All human influenza strains have an antigenic formula AH1N1 AH2N2 or AH3N2. N is one of the superficial components of the virus antigen, the so -called hemagglutinin, and N is the second antigen - neuraminidase. The chicken virus that caused a disease in Hong Kong has a formula AH5N1, that is, it has an absolute antigenic novelty for the human population. These were the pathogens of all previous pandemics, and that is why, when they appeared, there was a total spread of infection, which actually did not meet resistance. Suffice it to say that during the pandemic of the Spaniard, 20 million people died in 1918-20. It was in a dantybiotic era. But even in 1968, during the Hong Kong Pandemia of influenza, despite the presence of antibiotics and other modern treatment methods, more than one hundred thousand people died from the infection.

Marina Efimova : It is the problem of changing and mutations of pandemic viruses that one of the investigatives, professor of the University of Wisconsin Yoshikhiro Kawaoca, is dealing with one of the trackers. In particular, he studies the virus of the so-called "Asian flu" of the 50s.

Yoshikhiro Kawaoka : We study the mechanism of those changes in the virus that make it aggressive. These changes are very small. Say, in the virus that I investigated, it was possible to detect changes in one nucleotide. Nucleotides are components that are in the Gener of the Virus 1700, but it is precisely the smallest changes that arose that, perhaps simply by mistake of nature, can turn out to be fatal. Conventional influenza viruses affect only the upper respiratory tract in the human body, but with certain mutations, that is, genetic changes, they receive the ability to capture other organs. This makes them virulent, aggressive and extremely dangerous.

"Conventional influenza viruses affect only the upper respiratory tract in the human body, but with certain mutations, that is, genetic changes, they receive the ability to capture other organs. This makes them virulent, aggressive and extremely dangerous"

Marina Efimova : Here it is necessary to add that the flu pandemia occurs every 20-30 years, and the last wave, the so-called Hong Kong flu, was held in 1968. That is why in August 1997, a few days after the message of Dr. Dedzhong, in all countries the centers for combating influenza epidemics were raised. The chief epidemiologist of such a center in San Francisco, Dr. Kji Fuda, urgently flew to Hong Kong at the head of the expert group. Later, Fudu told reporters.

Announcer : “On the plane, I naturally recalled the Spaniard who struck humanity during the First World War. This flu killed 21 million people, in the vast majority of young and completely healthy, including 43 thousand American soldiers. A similar epidemic, it happened today, in a certain sense, it can be even more dangerous. In those days, it moved around the world on trains and steamers, and now it will fly now On high-speed aircraft, if the epidemic begins in Hong Kong, then after three hours it can move to Tokyo and a few days later in New York. ”

Announcer : On August 20, 1918, the commander of the 12th division, Major General Henry McCain arrived at the Kemp military base, Massachusetts, from where his division was supposed to be sent to Europe to the front. A week later, McCain reported that several soldiers were sick with meningitis in very severe form. Two weeks later, he had already reported that dozens of soldiers were already sick, but that it was obviously the Influenza, and that the same thing began in Boston, from where the name of the flu is the Spanish, and three weeks later, when, according to the calculations of the general, his division was already the pride of the American army, McCain discovered that he commanded one incredibly enormous field hospitals. In particularly severe cases, ten days after the onset of the disease, the soldiers died of pneumonia, and never so unprecedented by the doctors of the form - they were choked with water that flooded their lungs.

Marina Efimova : This is how Alfred Crosby describes the beginning of the Spaniard in America, the chronicle of this epidemic. Despite the fact that the war was going on and everyone was not up to influenza, the doctor from Kemp-Densvers nevertheless sent sections of the pulmonary fabric of several dead soldiers along with the history of their illness to Washington, to the Military Medical Academy, and there they lay in the museum for 80 years, until last year they were requested by the young pathologist of the Academy, Dr. Jeffrey Taubenberger. This microbiologist with a hard -pronounced surname was the first to find a way to extract DNA from dead viruses, which was previously impossible, and thereby recreate the genetic structure of any virus, even from the distant past. Dr. Taubenberger is involved in our today's program.

Jeffrey Taubenberger : We are trying to find out two things. First, where did the 1918 virus come from? Did he switch to people from birds or animals, for example, with pigs, and if so, what was the biological mechanism of this transition? Because if we find some constant principle of mutation of the influenza virus, we can withstand it. Our second task is to find out what made the 1918 flu virus so deadly? The guess of scientists came down to the fact that the change, the mutation of this virus occurred in its genes, so if we were able to restore all the genes of the 1918 virus, we would be able to determine the unique decisive change that made this virus so omnipotent. When we find out all this, we will be able to predict the first cases of the disease that the virus is especially dangerous, and take immediate measures to stop it.

Marina Efimova : However, it turned out that from the Taubenberger viruses that had survived at the Military Medical Academy, only two were suitable, because he could use the pulmonary tissue only those patients who died suddenly for several days, while the virus still lasted and grew up. In the midst of the experiment, Taubenberger would be without material if it weren’t for a phone call from California, from a 73-year-old virus, pensioner Yohim Holten, who read the article by Taubenberger in the magazine "Science". Holten reminded the young scientist that among other victims of the Spanish were the residents of the village of Brevik in Alaska, where in one month the flu killed 85% of the inhabitants. “I will try to go there,” Holten said. “When?” Taubenberger asked incredulously. “Next week,” Holten said. Paradise Vail is talking with Dr. Holten.

"If I am allowed to open the graves again, we will be able to quickly find a vaccine that will develop immunity against a deadly disease from the village inhabitants when it will come back"

Johim Holten : for the first time I came to Alaska in 1951, spoke with the residents, in the village there were then a 90-100 man. I managed to talk with the three Eskimos who survived the 1918 epidemic. One of them was part of the Council of Elders of the village. I asked him to tell the rest of the members about what happened then. Obviously, his story convinced them, and they allowed me to open the graves. But, as you know, the virus that I then discovered was dead. I tried to revive him, but useless. Failure, however, did not cool my interest in this problem. After 46 years, I returned to this village again. I said that now it is possible to determine a lot by the dead virus, I brought with me photos of graves, the names of people who were buried here in 1918. If you are allowed to open the graves again, we will be able to quickly find a vaccine that will develop immunity against a deadly illness from the village inhabitants when it will come again. In a word, the elders agreed this time. But at first we were not lucky. Despite the eternal permafrost, from those who died in 1918, there were not even viruses left, only skeletons. We continued to dig and, finally - luck! We found the corpse of a young woman. She was so complete that the fat layer protected her body from decomposition, the lungs were in order, I had to remove them right on the spot. I placed several slices of pulmonary tissue in a special solution, designed to preserve the genetic structure, and then sent Dr. Taubenberger to Washington.

Raya Vile : Excuse me, and who paid all this? Your trip to Alaska, work related to excavations?

Yohim Holten : Nobody. I myself paid from my savings. It cost me $ 3,200.

Raya Vile : But they probably compensate you to this?

Johim Holten : No, yes, I do not want it. It is important for me that Dr. Taubenberger now has enough material.

Marina Efimova : I must say that the Donor woman from Alaska, who was found in the eternal permafrost, Holten, the jokes-doctors have already called Lucy-Lucy from Alaska. Dr. Taubenberger, now that you have Lucy viruses, do you have enough material to recreate the entire genetic structure of the 1918 virus?

Jeffrey Taubenberger : Yes, I think that there is enough material now. But technically, the process of restoration of genes is so complex, and there are still so many ambiguities that I take it to its implementation for several years. Now we have finished the restoration of only one gene, and there are only ten of them. There is another problem. I have no complete confidence that in the laboratory conditions we will be able to see and determine that fatal change in the genes that made him number one killer among all famous epidemics of the 20th century. So it may turn out that it will be necessary to explore other ways to reveal this riddle, that the only restoration of the genetic structure of the virus is not enough.

Marina Efimova : Dr. Taubenberger, as I understand it, practically did not fight the Spaniard. Why did it stop by itself in two years?

Jeffrey Taubenberger : In 1918-19, almost every person on the globe had at least contact with those who were infected with influenza virus, and all the survivors appeared in the blood of protective antibodies. A third of humanity was ill with a Spaniard in one year, that is, the viruses had nowhere to go, and they either died out or, for the sake of self-preservation, mutated not so deadly. I personally believe that the influenza viruses, which now circulate in the organisms of poultry, pigs and humans, are either descendants or relatives of the 1918 influenza virus.

Marina Efimova : Why is the Spanka called the "mother" of all epidemics? They talk about her as if it were the first flu epidemic in the world? Dr. Kawaoka?

Yoshikhiro Kawaoka : It is known that until 1918 similar epidemics passed around the world, but then no one had yet known to identify them. In general, the concept of the virus itself appeared only a hundred years ago, more precisely, in 1892. It was created, as you know, the Russian scientist Dmitry Ivanovsky, whose name is the institute in Moscow.

"... The concept of the virus appeared only a hundred years ago, more precisely, in 1892. It was created, as you know, the Russian scientist Dmitry Ivanovsky, whose name is the institute in Moscow"

Marina Efimova : Alfred Crosby in his book Epidemic and Peace in 1918, not without bitterness, writes that American writers almost did not reflect this disaster in their works. Neither Hemingway nor Fitzgerald wrote anything about the flu in the army, although several people died every day before their eyes. Agnes von Kurovsky, which Hemingway was in love with and which he later depicted in the novel Farewell, weapons, left him to fight the epidemic in Florence. John Dos Passos, who himself was ill with a Spaniard on the ship, driving troops to Europe, wrote about this only in a playful letter home: “I had something similar to pneumonia, tuberculosis, diphtheria, dysentery, dyspepsia, Scarlatin and Beri Bari. But whatever it was, it passed”. Only for the writer Katherine Anne Porter flu 1918 turned the world. She was then a young correspondent of the Danver newspaper. She and her groom, also a young infantry lieutenant, fell ill at the same time. Porter was so hard that the newspaper has already prepared an obituary. Their hair was dry and fell out during the illness. When the crisis passed, and she tried to sit down, she fell from weakness and broke her hand. And the lieutenant died. And Katherine Anne Porter wrote about this her best novel, which called "the horse is pale, the horseman is pale." This is the beginning of an old Negro song: "The horse is pale, the horseman is pale, do not take my beloved." In total, 637 thousand Americans died from influenza during the First World War, of which 43 thousand young soldiers and officers.

In the fall of 1997, in Hong Kong, Dr. Fuda and his team, having discovered that all people who were ill with the flu became infected from chickens, gave a recommendation to destroy chickens, ducks and geese in those areas where the diseases of chicken or bird viral influenza were registered. This measure was accepted, and the flu seemed to be stopped. However, Dr. Webster, for example, this measure did not reassure. He said: "They closed the stable, it is only unknown - before or after the horses ran out." The dispute between specialists continues.

Daniil Golubev : Dr. Robert Webster, working in the Holy Judas Hospital in the city of Memphis, after visiting Hong Kong expressed a firm belief that the pandemic would begin after a short time, for which the AH5N1 virus would gain transmissibibility necessary for the development of the pandemic process. Other experts, in particular, Hong Kong, two months after the release of the first bird strain from a person, expressed the idea that the AH5N1 strain should already show their pandemic potencies if he had.

Marina Efimova : Dr. Taubenberger, the Committee of Experts of the World Health Organization, despite the resistance of Dr. Webster, decided not to make a bird virus vaccine, although he killed six out of eighteen people last year, that is, a third of the sick. Huge percentage! Do you agree with this decision of the Expert Committee?

Jeffrey Taubenberger : In fact, there are already several companies in the CDC system, that is, centers to control epidemic diseases, make this vaccine so that it is at hand just in case. Просто ее решили не включать как компонент в антигриппозную вакцину будущего года ввиду небольшого числа заболеваний. В последние несколько месяцев не обнаружилось ни одного случая куриного гриппа, так что пока будем считать его несчастной случайностью.

Марина Ефимова : Сейчас у нас 1998 год. Прошло ровно 30 лет со времени так называемого "гонконгского" гриппа 1968 года. Встретим ли мы следующую пандемию более подготовленными, чем раньше?

Йохим Таубенбергер : Да, сейчас у нас есть лекарства, помогающие бороться с вирусным гриппом несравнимо эффективнее, чем тридцать лет назад, и новые лекарства, еще более эффективные, уже на подходе. И нуждаются только в официальном утверждении.

Марина Ефимова : И однако, скажем, доктор Холтен, как я прочла в одной из статей о нем, дал инструкцию жене на случай, если пандемия начнется, когда его не будет, немедленно уехать в их домик в горах, запасясь недели на две продуктами, и там в полной изоляции переждать эпидемию.

Йохим Холтен : Пока нет вакцины или нет ее в достаточном количестве, единственная возможность не подхватить вирусную инфекцию - это изолировать себя от больных. Эскимосы это понимали. И в 1918 году в нескольких деревнях старейшины, узнав, что страшная болезнь убивает соседей, устраивали у себя карантин, никого не выпускали и не впускали, вокруг некоторых деревень даже выставляли вооружённую охрану. И так они выжили. Там ни один человек не умер от гриппа.

Марина Ефимова : Откуда же берется этот таинственный микроскопический живой организм, вирус, способный мутировать, приспосабливать, переорганизовывать свои гены как цветные стеклышки в калейдоскопе? Доктор Каваока?

Йошихиро Каваока : Они обитают в природных водах в несметных количествах, а когда и в чей организм они попадают - это дело случая.

Марина Ефимова : А откуда они взялись в воде?

Йошихиро Каваока : Они были там всегда.

Марина Ефимова : Однажды Джозеф МакКормик, один из самых известных охотников за вирусами, сказал бессмертную фразу: "Мы, люди - лишь временные оккупанты в мире вирусов".