If I remember what I have read correctly, the vaccine was given to people who had not yet had the flu rather than people who were already sick. That PfeifferÂ’s Bacillus was not the cause of the flu was proven after the fact. The vaccines were developed on the assumption that the bacillus was the cause because doctors at the time had nothing else to go on. The PfeifferÂ’s hypothesis was the most logical one possible based on what was known at the time.
Can you document this? I have a bachelorÂ’s degree in biology (and the 1918 pandemic holds special interest for me) and IÂ’ve never heard this claimed. However, while doing a quick internet search I found that some people claim that PfeifferÂ’s Bacillus is the cause of influenza (under the name Haemophilus influenzae, while other people claim influenza is caused by a virus (which is what I have always heard). Biologically speaking a bacillus is a certain type of bacterium (classified by its shape, although the term is often applied to all shapes of bacteria) and bacteria and viruses are not the same thing. Furthermore, during the 1918 pandemic PfeifferÂ’s Bacillus was not found in the lungs of everyone who died of the flu so it may be the cause of the pneumonia that most people who died from the flu likely ended up with, but it was not likely the underlying cause of the flu that made people susceptible to pneumonia.
The true cause of the Spanish flu (and all other strains) came when researchers began researching distemper in dogs. Researchers didnÂ’t figure theyÂ’d ever get funding to study the flu in humans, but the upper-class would gladly pay to find a cure for their dogsÂ’ distemper, a disease whose symptoms mimic the flu in humans. The researchers used ferrets instead of dogs because they also get distemper and are easier to breed and care for in a lab setting. A researcher confirmed the link between distemper and the flu when a sick ferret sneezed in his face and he got the flu after a few days. When the pathogen was isolated it was a virus. All of todayÂ’s flu vaccines originated with the work on distemper in ferrets/dogs.
As for the discrepancy on the net, thereÂ’s always the possibility that people (especially people who design websites) may be thinking that the terms flu and pneumonia are interchangeable- which they are not from a biologistÂ’s standpoint.
