Text 21855, 69 rader
Skriven 2006-01-10 22:47:12 av MIKE ROSS (1:167/133.0)
  Kommentar till text 21833 av Roy Witt (1:1/22)
Ärende: Musings online
======================
"Roy Witt" bravely wrote to "MIKE ROSS" (10 Jan 06  18:16:50)
 --- on the heady topic of "Musings online"

 RW> 10 Jan 06 09:19, MIKE ROSS wrote to Roy Witt:

 RW>> My MIL was six years old in 1918, and she nursed her adult family
 RW>> during the worst of it. If she died from the Spanish flu, it sure
 RW>> took a long time...she died at 92...

 MR> That sure is a long time indeed and you are lucky to have some good
 MR> longevity genes in your family!

 RW> Those won't do me any good...but her kids (my wife) will probably
 RW> benefit from them.

 MR> Actually, I made a mistake in retelling the story and should not have
 MR> written "children" but instead "teenagers" and young adults. Turns
 MR> out that young children were not as likely to die because they
 MR> inherited their parents' partial immunity from that previous related
 MR> flu.

 RW> Probably true, as babys have a certain immunity to deseases, at least
 RW> for a while. And I think that is, if they're breast fed.

Well, if your MIL was 6 yrs old then I suppose she hadn't been nursing
for some time. Might passed on immunity be good for 10 years or more?
A flu doesn't infect everybody equally. There are some lucky few that
are naturally immune to just about anything that comes along. My BIL
is like that though he survived a meningitis infection in his teens.
These types of people might die from a stroke but never from some bug.
That they don't even believe bugs exist to begin with might have
something to do with it!


 MR> The teenagers and young adults had not inherited those flu antibodies
 MR> like the young children did. Although it seems a contradiction with
 MR> Frank's original story, not all young children survived.

 RW> Sorta depended on their status in life. Those who lived in poverty
 RW> were more likely to get it than those who lived posh lives.

And there was the reverse effect too with for example "Typhoid Mary",
where it was only the children of the rich that died.


 RW> There was sort of another epidemic of the flu in 1968. I got, the wife
 RW> and kids didn't. I 'wished' I was dead, but the wife got me out of bed
 RW> and to the doc for a shot in the hip...I was out of it for 5 days and
 RW> didn't recognize anybody who visited.

Did you get that cliche out of body experience? I once caught a nasty
one too where in my delirium all my thoughts were in Spanish. I do
understand most of it spoken and do speak it a little but not too
well. How come I was thinking in it I still can't figure out.


 MR> Thanks for catching the miswrite.

 RW> Makes for interesting conversation, right?

We can still separate reality from fiction most of the time. Clearly
we have been irresponsible but then I was hoping RD would catch on. It
sure was fun though, in a FIDO way. Flame on, dude!    :P ...pffft!

 M*i*k*e

... Bad day: When the bird singing outside is a buzzard!
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30
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