<<<Dr. Karen M. Starko MD provides us with some important clues. She hypothesizes the high mortality rates due to the 1918 Spanish flu resulted from the over-use of aspirin. The evidence Dr. Starko provides is compelling.

•Physicians of the day were unaware that the recommended medication regimens (8.0—31.2 grams per day, or 8000 to 31,200 milligrams) during that time period produce aspirin levels associated with hyperventilation (33%) and fluid accumulation in the lungs (pulmonary edema 3%) of subjects.
•Accumulation of fluid in the lungs was recently found in 46% of 26 aspirin-intoxicated adults. In lab experiments, aspirin increases lung fluid and impairs clearance of mucus.
•In 1918 aspirin was recommend by the US Surgeon General, the US Navy, and the Journal of the American Medical Association just prior to the October death spike.
•Bayer first introduced water-soluble aspirin tablets in 1900. Farbenfabriken Bayer’s worldwide distribution of aspirin had been accomplished in the same year as the flu pandemic. Aspirin sales more than doubled from 1918 to 1920.
•The US Army camp with the highest mortality rate had ordered 100,000 aspirin tablets.
•Young children were not given aspirin as widely as young adults, which may explain why the young had a lower mortality rate in the 1918 flu. [Clinical Infectious Diseases 2009; 49: online Sept. 29]>>>
[link to www.lewrockwell.com]

<<<... fever plays a hugely important role in the fight against infection, preventing bacteria, viruses etc from multiplying so that the immune system can muster its forces to see them off. Without this important defence the bugs multiply rapidly and remorselessly until they overwhelm their unfortunate host. This is why the most serious infections are almost invariably accompanied by fever - the body deliberately raises the core temperature to above 101-102 degrees farenheit, above which, the bacteria / viruses simply cannot multiply - their reproduction comes to a complete halt until the temperature drops again.

Whilst it may be uncomfortable (and in extreme cases, life-threateneing in itself), fever is therefore a very important defense mechanism which buys vital time for the immune system to recognise the attackers, prepare relevant antibodies and rush them into full-scale production to beat the bug.

Enter aspirin, which, amongst many other effects, is a powerful antipyretic (fever-reducing agent). This artifically REDUCES body temperature, therefore undoing all the good work that the body is trying to do whilst it mobilises its defences. The result is a reduction in fever, which allows the bugs to continue multiplying BEFORE the immune system has had time to organise its response. This causes a far more serious illness and, in the words of an eye-witness (see below) untold misery and many, many deaths.>>>
[link to www.natural-health-information-centre.com]

<<<Homeopathy also gained quite a reputation during the 1918 flu pandemic. Raymond Seidel, HMD (homeopathic medical doctor), decided to be a homeopathic doctor during the 1918 flu epidemic when he was a 10-year-old delivery boy for a local homeopath. He said, "I saw that the people who were taking aspirin were dying, about half those who were drinking a lot were dying, and those that received homeopathic remedies were living."

In Julian Winston’s article, Influenza-1918: Homeopathy to the Rescue (The New England Journal of Homeopathy, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1998), he noted that most of the deaths were caused by a virulent pneumonia that was especially devastating to those who depressed their system with analgesics, especially aspirin. The following citations from his article prove this point:

Three hundred and fifty cases and lost one, a neglected pneumonia that came to me after she had taken one hundred grains of aspirin in twenty-four hours. ~Cora Smith King, MD, Washington, DC

I had a package handed to me containing 1,000 aspirin tablets, which was 994 too many. I think I gave about a half dozen. I could find no place for it. My remedies were few. I almost invariably gave Gelsemium and Bryonia. I hardly ever lost a case if I got there first, unless the patient had been sent to a drug store and bought aspirin, in which event I was likely to have a case of pneumonia on my hands. ~J. P. Huff, MD, Olive Branch, Kentucky>>>
[link to remixxworld.blogspot.com]


<<<The high case-fatality rate—especially among young adults—during the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic is incompletely understood. Although late deaths showed bacterial pneumonia, early deaths exhibited extremely “wet,” sometimes hemorrhagic lungs. The hypothesis presented herein is that aspirin contributed to the incidence and severity of viral pathology, bacterial infection, and death, because physicians of the day were unaware that the regimens (8.0–31.2 g per day) produce levels associated with hyperventilation and pulmonary edema in 33% and 3% of recipients, respectively. Recently, pulmonary edema was found at autopsy in 46% of 26 salicylate-intoxicated adults. Experimentally, salicylates increase lung fluid and protein levels and impair mucociliary clearance. In 1918, the US Surgeon General, the US Navy, and the Journal of the American Medical Association recommended use of aspirin just before the October death spike.>>>
[link to cid.oxfordjournals.org]