It's not that Mark Sangster likes being sick, or that he wishes it on any one else. The flu happens to be a specialty of his, so if he seems to speak fondly of his encounter with the Russian flu in 1977, chalk it up to scientific curiosity -- not masochism.

It was also the flu that was the topic of the latest UT Science Forum on Friday, Nov. 14, when the assistant professor of UT's microbiology department talked about the history and concerns of the infectious disease.

"This is certainly the right time of the the year to be talking about influenza," he said. "You may have been thinking about whether it will be a bad flu season, should I get a flu shot? Will the flu shot provide good protection this season?"

While most people just focus on avoiding the sickness, Sangster studies its history, such as the various flu pandemics.

"A pandemic occurs when a completely new influenza virus spread throughout the world infects a high proportion of individuals and kills a lot of people, typically half a million to a million people," said Sangster.

Some pandemics are much more devastating than that. The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 is one example, he said.

"It really was the mother of all pandemics. Many have referred to it as the greatest medical holocaust in history," said Sangster.

The Holy Grail of vaccination research is the development of a strategy that would provide broad protection against different influenza viruses.
-Mark Sangster, assistant professor in UT's microbiology department

Sangster said the 1918 flu infected 25 percent to 50 percent of the human population during that year and killed an estimated 40 million to 50 million people worldwide.

The difference between a flu pandemic and seasonal fluctuations in the flu are between losing some immunity to a virus compared with losing complete immunity, he said. During a pandemic, the virus changes so dramatically that a normal human's immune response utterly fails.

In seasonal occurrences, a virus merely drifts away from its previous form, creating a higher rate of infection but remaining similar enough to what it used to be for humans to retain some immunity.

Sangster said major concern with the current bird flu becoming a pandemic is that it is similar to Spanish flu in its high mortality rate and mortality demographic. It is harshest on people ages 15-40 and has a 63 percent mortality rate, which surpasses the Spanish flu pandemic.

Unlike Spanish Flu, the bird flu, or virus H5N1, does not spread easily among humans. Since September 2003, around 400 cases of the H5N1 virus have been documented. Even those living closely to infected fowl are highly unlikely of contracting H5N1, he said.

But Sangster says that another pandemic is historically inevitable, which makes flu research essential.

"The Holy Grail of vaccination research is the development of a strategy that would provide broad protection against different influenza viruses, per discussion about flu vaccines not providing good protection a particular year because a match between the virus causing infection and the vaccine was not good," said Sangster.

Sangster is working with colleagues from the University of Rochester to tackle this broader protection. The National Institues of Health is funding the initiative in response to bird flu fears. The NIH has granted $130 million to 6 centers around the country to research influenza. Sangster's team hopes to determine which types of white blood cells are most adept at helping fight influenza.

"The scare that bird flu has given us has definitely put us in a better position to deal with the next pandemic that comes along," said Sangster. "The concern is not a flu that is circulating; it is something that hasn't been introduced to humans."

Sangster was born in Perth, Australia and received his bachelor's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Western Australia.