Has aspirin made Spanish flu worse?

Spanish flu

Has aspirin aggravated by the overdose and weakening of the immune response, the Spanish flu?

As a major reason for the already panic-like reactions after the outbreak of the swine flu, the Spanish flu was always cited. It occurred in 1918/1919 and was with approximately 25 million dead worldwide at the end of the First World War, a real Horroszenario.

Apart from the current criticism of the measures and reactions from the state and media sides to the swine flu, two recent scientific findings, the events appear again in a completely different light.

New insights into relationships between deaths and treatment
US infectologist Karen Starko from Burlingame, San Francisco, has researched that possibly many deaths were caused by an overdose of aspirin. The background to this is that aspirin became a kind of wonder drug at the beginning of the 20th century, making it a drug that was much praised by the industry and widely overdosed.

Starkos research was triggered by the medical report of a former flu victim. This stated, repeated with one „half handful“ Aspirin has been treated. This seemed Starko far above today's normal therapeutic dose.

For comparison: Today, the recommended daily dose is a maximum of 4 grams. At that time, between 8 and 31 grams were said to have been given regularly.

Earlier studies had probably already shown that it can lead to water retention in the lungs in about 3 percent of those treated. Starko reported in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases that 1918 pathologists in early deceased in the context of Spanish flu also spoke of such areas. This could then increase the symptoms of Spanish flu in terms of intensity and incidence as well as mortality - but also the risk of an additional bacterial infection that would later be added. Most patients of the Spanish flu have died of a later bacterial pneumonia.

This could be underscored by another study in the journal The Journal of Immunology by Charles Brown and his team from the University of Missouri in Columbia, USA. The researchers found that when taken regularly, the active ingredients acetylsalicylic acid (active ingredient in aspirin) and paracetamol block an enzyme in our body, which is important for our immune defense and the establishment of an antibody after a flu vaccine.

Use new findings in the interests of the patients
In the light of Brown and Starko's publications, it should be noted that the type of treatment may have contributed negligibly to the high death toll of the Spanish flu. It is hoped that these findings will be taken up by the swine flu authorities. They should be groundbreaking for future treatment approaches and dealing with worldwide infections. (Non-medical practitioner Osteopathy Thorsten Fischer 04.01., 2010)