C Patriarca1, C A Clerici2. 1. Servizio di Anatomia Patologica, Ospedale St Anna, ASST Lariana, Como, Italia. 2. Dipartimento di Oncologia ed Emato-Oncologia, Università degli Studi di Milano e SSD Psicologia Clinica, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milano, Italia.
Abstract
The pandemic "Spanish flu", that in a few weeks of the autumn 1918 caused in Italy a number of deaths between 350.000 and 600.000, was widely discussed by the scientific community, although very little of that debate leaked out, because of the military censorship. In the present article we comment on the original papers describing the hemorrhagic pneumonia, and on discussions about the ideas of the origin of the pandemic infection (Pfeiffer bacillus, vs streptococcus or other bacteria vs a "viral hypotesis") that occurred in Pathologica during and soon after that ominous pandemia.
The pandemic "Spanish flu", that in a few weeks of the autumn 1918 caused in Italy a number of deaths between 350.000 and 600.000, was widely discussed by the scientific community, although very little of that debate leaked out, because of the military censorship. In the present article we comment on the original papers describing the hemorrhagic pneumonia, and on discussions about the ideas of the origin of the pandemic infection (Pfeiffer bacillus, vs streptococcus or other bacteria vs a "viral hypotesis") that occurred in Pathologica during and soon after that ominous pandemia.