"Genomic analysis of relatives of soldiers who died during the 1918-19 influenza pandemic as a means to understand history and discover mortality risk factors" to be held in Oxford (360G-Wellcome-094011_Z_10_Z)

The influenza pandemic of 2009 demonstrated our ignorance of relevant mortality risk factors. Although few died in 2009, the large mortality of 1918-19 offers potential insights into the historical and biological causes of death from influenza. Extensive by-name morbidity and mortality data were prospectively collected by the British and USA military and are now available from on-going epidemiological studies centred on the Australian Army. We propose to meet in order to review the historical and medical data and determine if genomics analyses of relatives of those known to have died during the influenza pandemic 1918-19 could inform both the historical appreciation of the greatest single human mortality event which occurred in 1918-19 as well as our current understanding of pandemic influenza and genetic risk/protection factors.