1951: Pathologist seeks insight into Spanish Flu epidemic

A University of Iowa virologist tells the pathologist Johan Hultin that victims of the 1918 Spanish Influenza who were buried in Alaskan permafrost might be well enough preserved to give clues about the virus that caused the epidemic. Hultin travels to Brevig Mission, where Iñupiat elders give him permission to take samples. He extracts lung tissue samples from the human remains. Back in the University of Iowa lab, he finds no new information about the deadly virus. But more than 50 years later, researchers revisit the case. In 2005, using samples from Brevig Mission provided by Hultin, they discover how the virus arose.

Theme

Epidemics

Region

Arctic