As the world continues to experience the effects of SARS‐CoV‐2, there is evidence to suggest that the sequelae of viral infection (the post‐COVID‐19 condition; PCC) at both an individual and ...population level will be significant and long‐lasting. The history of pandemics or epidemics in the last 100 years caused by members of the RNA virus family, of which coronaviruses are a member, provides ample evidence of the acute neurological effects. However, except for the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 1918/1919 (the Spanish flu) with its associated encephalitis lethargica, there is little information on long‐term neurological sequelae. COVID‐19 is the first pandemic that has occurred in a setting of an aging population, especially in several high‐income countries. Its survivors are at the greatest risk for developing neurodegenerative conditions as they age, rendering the current pandemic a unique paradigm not previously witnessed. The SARS‐CoV‐2 virus, among the largest of the RNA viruses, is a single‐stranded RNA that encodes for 29 proteins that include the spike protein that contains the key domains required for ACE2 binding, and a complex array of nonstructural proteins (NSPs) and accessory proteins that ensure the escape of the virus from the innate immune response, allowing for its efficient replication, translation, and exocytosis as a fully functional virion. Increasingly, these proteins are also recognized as potentially contributing to biochemical and molecular processes underlying neurodegeneration. In addition to directly being taken up by brain endothelium, the virus or key protein constituents can be transported to neurons, astrocytes, and microglia by extracellular vesicles and can accelerate pathological fibril formation. The SARS‐CoV‐2 nucleocapsid protein is intrinsically disordered and can participate in liquid condensate formation, including as pathological heteropolymers with neurodegenerative disease‐associated RNA‐binding proteins such as TDP‐43, FUS, and hnRNP1A. As the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus continues to mutate under the immune pressure exerted by highly efficacious vaccines, it is evolving into a virus with greater transmissibility but less severity compared with the original strain. The potential of its lingering impact on the nervous system thus has the potential to represent an ongoing legacy of an even greater global health challenge than acute infection.
The consequences of nervous system exposure by the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus in an aging population are discussed, including the potential acceleration or advancement of neurodegenerative processes. Pathophysiological mechanisms include the ongoing manifestations of acute immune‐mediated inflammation but also chronic immune dysregulation. While there is little evidence to suggest viral replication in the central nervous system, the presence of the ACE2 receptor and coreceptors such as Neuropilin‐1 suggest the ability for uptake. The evidence that the exosomal transport of components of the viral protein, and in particular, of the intrinsically disordered nucleocapsid protein, can lead to neuronal protein expression is discussed. Created with BioRender.com
Understanding dynamics of pandemics Akin, Levent; Gözel, Mustafa Gökhan
Turkish journal of medical sciences,
04/2020, Letnik:
50, Številka:
SI-1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Along the centuries, novel strain of virus such as influenza produces pandemics which increase illness, death and disruption in the countries. Spanish flu in 1918, Asian flu in 1957, Hong Kong flu in ...1968 and swine flu in 2009 were known pandemic which had various characteristics in terms of morbidity and mortality. A current pandemic is caused by novel corona virus originated from China. COVID-19 pandemic is very similar to Spanish, Hong Kong, Asian and swine influenza pandemics in terms of spreading to world by the mobilized people. Burden of pandemic is considered in terms of disease transmissibility and the growth rate of epidemic and duration of pandemic can be calculated by transmissibility characteristic. The case definition, finding out cases and first case cluster, proper treatment, sufficient stockpiles of medicine and population cooperation with the containment strategy should be considered for reduction of burden of pandemic.
The article is about the 1918 H1N1 flu pandemic also called the "Spanish flu" which killed 50 million plus people worldwide, and the coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) which has spread in the world at ...an alarming pace. As of now there are 11,327,790 cases and 532,340 deaths globally. Aim of this article is to draw conclusions and share knowledge from both the pandemics and apply these lessons in other health programmes.
This paper provides new evidence of the impacts of early life exposure to the 1918 pandemic on old-age mortality by analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study (n ~ 220,000). The ...specifications used year and quarter of birth indicators to assess the effects of timing of pandemic exposure and used Cox proportional hazard models for all-cause mortality outcomes. The findings suggest evidence of excess all-cause mortality for cohorts born during 1918 and mixed evidence for cohorts born in 1917 and 1919. Therefore, contrary to some existing research, the results suggest no consistent evidence of the importance of specific windows of exposure by gestation period.
The 1918 influenza pandemic had not only a massive instant death toll but also lasting effects on its survivors. Several studies have shown that children born in 1919, and thus exposed to the H1N1 ...virus in utero, experienced worse health and socioeconomic outcomes in older ages than surrounding birth cohorts. This study combines several sources of contemporary statistics with full-population individual-level data for Sweden during 1968—2012 to examine the influence of fetal exposure to the Spanish flu on health, adulthood income, and occupational attainment. For both men and women, fetal exposure resulted in higher morbidity in ages 54-87, as measured by hospitalization. For males, exposure during the second trimester also affected mortality in cancer and heart disease. Overall, the effects on all-cause mortality were modest, with about three months shorter remaining life expectancy for the cohorts exposed during the second trimester. For socioeconomic outcomes, results fail to provide consistent evidence supporting any long-term consequences of fetal exposure. We conclude that although the immediate health effects of exposure to the 1918 pandemic were huge, the long-term effects were modest in size.
Resumo O artigo perscruta sob a perspectiva da história local de que forma a memória do sofrimento que cercou a epidemia de gripe espanhola de 1918 em Botucatu (interior paulista) foi reconvocada, ...tensionada e transmutada ao longo do processo histórico, produzindo representações em estratégias e práticas, e apreensões como constituintes de uma realidade social que produz sentidos. Para essa operação historiográfica, coligiram-se vestígios históricos em diversos arquivos botucatuenses, entre setembro e outubro de 2021, buscando desvelar processos históricos aglutinados e depositados entre as fibras e fímbrias sociais e que, sob afecção da temporalidade, se movimentam, se reelaboram e trazem à tona a inefável marca da gripe espanhola.
Abstract This article takes a local history perspective to scrutinize how the memory of suffering that surrounded the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 in Botucatu, São Paulo state, has been evoked, challenged, and transmuted over time, producing representations in strategies and practices, and understandings that end up constituting a meaning-making social reality. In this historiographic endeavor, historical vestiges were brought together from a variety of the city’s archives between September and October 2021 in a bid to reveal the historical processes that were accreted and deposited in the social fabric and fibers, and which, under the processes of time, were changed and reworked, bringing forth the ineffable mark of Spanish flu.
During epidemics, the poorest part of the population usually suffers the most. Alfred Crosby noted that the norm changed during the 1918 influenza pandemic in the US: The black population (which were ...expected to have higher influenza morbidity and mortality) had lower morbidity and mortality than the white population during the autumn of 1918. Crosby's explanation for this was that black people were more exposed to a mild spring/summer wave of influenza earlier that same year. In this paper, we review the literature from the pandemic of 1918 to better understand the crossover in the role of race on mortality. The literature has used insurance, military, survey, and routine notification data. Results show that the black population had lower morbidity, and during September, October, and November, lower mortality but higher case fatality than the white population. The results also show that the black population had lower influenza morbidity prior to 1918. The reasons for lower morbidity among the black population both at baseline and during the herald and later waves in 1918 remain unclear. Results may imply that black people had a lower risk of developing the disease given exposure, but when they did get sick, they had a higher risk of dying.
PDF
