The Great Influenza by John M. Barry (2004, Hardcover)

A BIG and long book, but well worth your time and thoughts about how fragile the human immune system CAN be.

Remember Michael Crichton's "The Andromeda Strain"? In it, a benign DNA/RNA strain mutates into a deadly killer strain. That was fiction. But in "The Great Influenza," the same thing happens, but THAT is fact.

I think the most shocking revelation is that this particular strain of flu was so deadly because it attacked not the usual victims -- the elderly, young, and fragile -- but those previously healthy individual people in the prime of their lives.

The reason the healthy fell victim to this strain is BECAUSE their immune systems were so intact and strong. That is, it really wasn't the FLU that killed and crippled, but in fact it was their immune systems that reacted so violently against the invasion. It was their body's physical REACTIONS that actually killed.

Another fascinating revelation in the book is how impotent the medical community was before the flu attacked. In particular is how medicine grew out of the "dark ages" through this disease. It's this disease that really brought to light the importance of physicians not only treating patients, but also the importance of personal scientific research.

For those of us who think there's too much specialization in medicine nowadays, this book reveals WHY specialization is important.

A couple book-related asides:

1) After reading "The Great Influenza," it's much easier to understand how most of civilization died off as a result of a killer strain -- as presented in Stephen King's book "The Stand."

2) My reading of this book also helped place in perspective Dr. Oliver Sacks' book and the subsequent movie "Awakenings." Reason: Those who survived The Great Flu frequently fell victim to the type of Parkinsonian paralysis exhibited so accurately by Robert DeNiro and others in the movie "Awakenings".

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