VIRUSES, PLAGUES, AND HISTORY This page intentionally left blank VIRUSES, PLAGUES, AND HISTORY Past, Present, and Future MICHAEL B. A. OLDSTONE Revised andUpdatedEdition 1 2010 1 OxfordUniversityPress,Inc.,publishesworksthatfurther OxfordUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellence inresearch,scholarship,andeducation. Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright(cid:2)c 2010byMichaelB.A.Oldstone PublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress,Inc. 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NewYork10016 www.oup.com OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,orotherwise, withoutthepriorpermissionofOxfordUniversityPress. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Oldstone,MichaelB.A. Viruses,plagues,andhistory:past,present,andfuture/byMichael B.A.Oldstone.—Rev.andupdateded. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-19-532731-1 1.Virusdiseases—History. I.Title. RC114.5.O372010 616.9—dc22 2009003550 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica onacid-freepaper ForBetsy, Jenny,Beau,andChris andsixsweethearts, CarolineAnne AileenElizabeth MadeleineRose FayeAnnastasia RainaElizabeth MarileeKate This page intentionally left blank Youneednotfeartheterrorbynight, northearrowthatfliesbyday, northeplaguethatstalksinthedarkness. —91stPsalm This page intentionally left blank PREFACE Mybook,Viruses,Plagues,andHistory,isnowmodifiedtoincludethree newplaguesthatplayimportantrolesinthistwenty-firstcentury. ThefirsttwoareSuddenAcuteRespiratorySyndrome(SARS),thefirst newplagueofthiscentury,andWestNilevirus,avirussimilartoyellow fever virus in being transmitted by mosquito but appearing for the first time in North America, in New York City during the late 1990s. West Nile virus is currently the most common cause of encephalitis (brain infection) in the Americas where it has now spread. Third, bird flu, or influenzavirus,inwhichabirdhemagglutiningene(H5)hasreplacedthe knownhemagglutiningenesofhumaninfluenzavirus(H1,H2,orH3), islethalfornearlytwo-thirdsofhumanshospitalizedorseriouslyillwith thisinfection.Birdfluhasnowmigratedonthewingsofitsavianhosts and/orbyshipmentofpoultryinitiallyfromChina,throughoutAsiato EuropeandwhilenotyetintheAmericas,itsarrivalisimminent. Considerable insight concerning understanding those plagues previ- ously discussedandcontainmentof severalsuchviruseshas beenmade overthelastdecade.Theseadvancesarepresentedhere.Alsodiscussed isthedampeningofprioreuphoriathatpoliomyelitisvirusandmeasles virus would be eliminated as targeted by the World Health Organiza- tion (WHO) in the early twenty-first century. Although containment of suchinfectionshasbeenremarkable,eliminationhasnotoccurred.Sim- ilarly,cowswithbovinespongiformdisease(madcowdisease)havenow been found in North America and raise alarms about the safety of the beef supply. Lastly, while the complete genomic structure of influenza 1918/1919fossilvirushasnowbeenreconstructedandthevirusmani- pulated to cause infection, conclusions of how and why the 1918/1919 fluwassolethalisstillapuzzletosolve. Conflicts between culture, politics, and government versus science havecontinued.Unfortunately,scienceismostoftenpoorerandaloser for it being often overruled by faith, myths, and ignorance. This results in the continuation and increased incidence of disease and greater ix