Bedside Rounds

The 1889 Russian Flu was the first influenza pandemic in an increasingly globalized world. In this episode, the second of a two-parter on how hydroxychloroquine became a great hope in COVID-19, we'll talk about how quinine became the standard of care for influenza. Along the way, we'll discuss the astrological origins of the flu, the nosological difficulties of identifying past pandemics, conspiracy theories about previous global coronavirus outbreaks, the media panic over the Russian Flu, first year law school cases about Carbolic Smoke Balls, and the first studies into quinine's efficacy in influenza.

References

1. Seeler, A. O., Graessle, O. & Ott, W. H. Effect of Quinine on Influenza Virus Infections in Mice. J Infect Dis 79, 156–158 (1946).
2. Barberis, I., Myles, P., Ault, S. K., Bragazzi, N. L. & Martini, M. History and evolution of influenza control through vaccination: from the first monovalent vaccine to universal vaccines. J Prev Medicine Hyg 57, E115–E120 (2016).
3. Ewing, E. T. La Grippe or Russian influenza: Mortality statistics during the 1890 Epidemic in Indiana. Influenza Other Resp 13, 279–287 (2019).
4. Gold, E. Pandemic Influenza 1700-1900: A Study in Historical Epidemiology. Jama 257, 2656–2656 (1987).
5. Rice, G. W. & Palmer, E. Pandemic Influenza in Japan, 1918-19: Mortality Patterns and Official Responses. J Jpn Stud 19, 389 (1993).
6. Mulder, J., Masurel, N., Deggars, E. M. & Webbers, P. T. PRE-EPIDEMIC ANTIBODY AGAINST 1957 STRAIN OF ASIATIC INFLUENZA IN SERUM OF OLDER PEOPLE LIVING IN THE NETHERLANDS. Lancet 271, 810–814 (1958).
7. Refresher Course for General Practitioners. J Amer Med Assoc 152, 773 (1953).
8. Moore, J. W. The influenza epidemic of 1889–90, as observed in Dublin. Transactions Royal Acad Medicine Irel 8, 56–74 (1890).
9. Textbook of Influenza. (n.d.).
10. Coghill, J. G. S. The Prophylaxis of Influenza. Brit Med J 1, 751 (1895).
11. When early modern Europe caught the flu. A scientific account of pandemic influenza in sixteenth century Sicily. (n.d.).
12. Potter. A history of influenza.
13. Valleron AJ et al, Transmissibility and geographic spread of the 1889 influenza pandemic. PNAS May 11, 2010 107 (19) 8778-8781
14. Cavallaro JJ and Monto AS. Community-wide Outbreak of Infection with a 229E-like Coronavirus in Tecumseh, Michigan.The Journal of Infectious Diseases. Vol. 122, No. 4 (Oct., 1970), pp. 272-279
15. Mulder J and Masurel N, Pre-epidemic Antibody Against 1957 Strain of Asiatic Influenza in Serum of Older People Living in the Netherlands. Lancet. 1958 Apr 19;1(7025):810-4
16. Vijgen L et al. Complete Genomic Sequence of Human Coronavirus OC43: Molecular Clock Analysis Suggests a Relatively Recent Zoonotic Coronavirus Transmission Event. J Virol. 2005 Feb; 79(3): 1595–1604.
17. Saunders-Hastings PR and Krewski D. Reviewing the History of Pandemic Influenza: Understanding Patterns of Emergence and Transmission. Pathogens. 2016 Dec; 5(4): 66.
18. Pappas G et al. Insights into infectious disease in the era of Hippocrates.International Journal of Infectious Diseases Volume 12, Issue 4, July 2008, Pages 347-350.
19. Flint A, Principles and Practice of Medicine. https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookviewer?PID=nlm:nlmuid-100894695-bk#page/234/mode/2up/search/influenza
20. Osler W, Principles and Practice of Medicine. https://archive.org/details/principlespract00osle/page/1002/mode/2up
21. Taubenberger JK and Morens DM. Influenza: The Once and Future Pandemic. Public Health Rep. 2010; 125(Suppl 3): 16–26.
22. Shope RE. Influenza: history, epidemiology, and speculation. Public Health Rep. 1958 Feb; 73(2): 165–179.
23. Ewing ET. Will It Come Here? Using Digital Humanities Tools to Explore Medical Understanding during the Russian Flu Epidemic, 1889–90. Med Hist. 2017 Jul; 61(3): 474–477.

This bonus episode introduces episode four of the Curious Clinicians, about Vincent Van Gogh and digitalis. The Curious Clinicians is a new medical podcast produced by Hannah Abrams, Avi Cooper, and Tony Breu; you can download them all at curiousclinicians.com.

Where did cinchona, the first medication to cure malaria, come from? This episode explores the murky history of the bark of the fever tree and its derivative chloroquine with mysterious pre-Columbian Pacific crossings of the plasmodium parasite, Jesuit priests and Inca healers, a Chinese Emperor performing a clinical trial to treat his fever, chemistry leading to the first modern pharmaceuticals, and imperialism on a global scale. This episode is the first of a multi-part series exploring how hydroxychloroquine became the great hope for treating COVID-19.

Sources:

1. Jaramillo‐Arango, J. A Critical Review of the Basic Facts in the History of Cinchona. J Linn Soc Lond Botany 53, 272–311 (1949).
2. Smith, N. K. A Cure for Ague. J Roy Soc Med 90, 589–590 (1997).
3. Potter, C. W. A history of influenza. J Appl Microbiol 91, 572–579 (2001).
4. Cunha, C. B. & Cunha, B. A. Brief history of the clinical diagnosis of malaria: from Hippocrates to Osler. J Vector Dis 45, 194–9 (2008).
5. Goss, A. Building the world's supply of quinine: Dutch colonialism and the origins of a global pharmaceutical industry. Endeavour 38, 8–18 (2014).
6. Al-Bari, Md. A. A. Chloroquine analogues in drug discovery: new directions of uses, mechanisms of actions and toxic manifestations from malaria to multifarious diseases. J Antimicrob Chemoth 70, 1608–1621 (2015).
7. Guastalegname, M. & Vallone, A. Could chloroquine /hydroxychloroquine be harmful in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) treatment? Clin Infect Dis (2020) doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa321.
8. Alia, E. & Grant-Kels, J. M. Does Hydroxychloroquine Combat COVID-19? A Timeline of Evidence. J Am Acad Dermatol (2020) doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2020.04.031.
9. Seeler, A. O., Graessle, O. & Ott, W. H. Effect of Quinine on Influenza Virus Infections in Mice. J Infect Dis 79, 156–158 (1946).
10. Savarino, A., Boelaert, J. R., Cassone, A., Majori, G. & Cauda, R. Effects of chloroquine on viral infections: an old drug against today's diseases. Lancet Infect Dis 3, 722–727 (2003).
11. Chakrabarti, P. Empire and Alternatives: Swietenia febrifuga and the Cinchona Substitutes. Med Hist 54, 75–94 (2010).
12. Lonie, I. M. Fever pathology in the sixteenth century: tradition and innovation. Med Hist 25, 19–44 (1981).
13. Luke, T. C. et al. Hark back: Passive immunotherapy for influenza and other serious infections. Crit Care Med 38, e66–e73 (2010).
14. Shanks, G. D. Historical Review: Problematic Malaria Prophylaxis with Quinine. Am J Tropical Medicine Hyg 95, 269–272 (2016).
15. Harrison, N. In celebration of the Jesuit's powder: a history of malaria treatment. Lancet Infect Dis 15, 1143 (2015).
16. Gerszten, E., Allison, M. J. & Maguire, B. Paleopathology in South American Mummies: A Review and New Findings. Pathobiology 79, 247–256 (2012).
17. Haas, L. F. Pierre Joseph Pelletier (1788-1842) and Jean Bienaime Caventou (1795-1887). J Neurology Neurosurg Psychiatry 57, 1333 (1994).
18. PROPHYLACTIC QUININE IN INFLUENZA. Lancet 204, 1152 (1924).
19. Gensini, G. F. & Conti, A. A. The evolution of the concept of 'fever' in the history of medicine: from pathological picture per se to clinical epiphenomenon (and vice versa). J Infection 49, 85–87 (2004).
20. Bergman, G. J. The history and importance of cinchona bark as an anti‐malarial febrifuge. Sci Educ 32, 93–103 (1948).
21. Thompson, C. & MBE. The History and Lore of Cinchona. (n.d.).
22. THE HUXLEY MEMORIAL. Lancet 146, 1381 (1895).
23. Urdang, G. The Legend on Cinchona. (n.d.).
24. Castro, M. C. de & Singer, B. H. Was malaria present in the Amazon before the European conquest? Available evidence and future research agenda. J Archaeol Sci 32, 337–340 (2005).
25. Kummu M et al, How Close Do We Live to Water? A Global Analysis of Population Distance to Freshwater Bodies. PLoS One. 2011; 6(6): e20578.
26. Dawson WT et al, IDIOSYNCRASY TO QUININE, CINCHONIDINE AND ETHYLHYDROCUPREINEv AND OTHER LEVOROTATORY ALKALOIDS OF THE CINCHONA SERIES: PRELIMINARY REPORT. JAMA 8 Mar 1930.
27. Bynum WF, Cullen and the study of fevers in Bitain, 1760-1820. Medical History, supplement no 1, 1981.
28. Rodrigues PT et al, Human migration and the spread of malaria parasites to the New World. Nature, 31 January 2018.
29. Achan J et al, Quinine, an old anti-malarial drug in a modern world: role in the treatment of malaria. Malar J. 2011; 10: 144.
30. Norn PH, On the history of Cinchona bark in the treatment of Malaria.Dansk Medicinhistorisk Arbog, 31 Dec 2015, 44:9-30.
31. Cook H (2010). Testing the effects of Jesuit's bark in the Chinese Emperor's court. JLL Bulletin: Commentaries on the history of treatment evaluation (https://www.jameslindlibrary.org/articles/testing-the-effects-of-jesuits-bark-in-the-chinese-emperors-court/)

The 1918 influenza pandemic, or the Spanish Flu, is the obvious parallel to the COVID-19 pandemic -- a worldwide plague attacking a scientific and global society much like our own. In this guest episode by Hannah Abrams and Gaby Mayer, we chase these parallels wherever they take us, talking etiology, presentation, treatments, masking, curve-flattening, and mortality measures.

Plagues have fascinated us since antiquity, but the Antonine Plague stands out because one of the most famous physicians in Western history was present to make detailed observations. In this episode, guest host Liam Conway-Pearson explores what we know -- and what we don't know -- about this plague, which ravaged Rome two millennia ago. Plus a brand new #AdamAnswers about using convalescent plasma to treat the Spanish Flu of 1918!

Sources:

• Adrian Muraru, "On Galen of Pergamum: The Greek Physician and Philosopher of Late Antiquity in the Roman Empire," Agathos 9, no.2 (2018): 7-20.
• H. Clifford Lane and Anthony S. Fauci, "Microbial Bioterrorism," in Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 20e, ed. J. Larry Jameson et al. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2018), S2.
• James Greenberg, "Plagued by Doubt: Reconsidering the Impact of a Mortality Crisis in the 2nd C. A.D.," Journal of Roman Archaeology 16 (2003): 413-425.
• Jennifer Manley, "Measles and Ancient Plagues: A Note on New Scientific Evidence," Classical World 107, no. 3 (Spring 2014): 393-397.
• J. F. Gilliam, "The Plague under Marcus Aurelius," The American Journal of Philology 82, no. 3 (July 1961): 225-251.
• John Haldon, Hugh Elton, Sabine R. Huebner, Adam Izdebski, Lee Mordechai, and Timothy P. Newfield, "Plagues, Climate Change, and the End of an Empire. A Response to Kyle Harper's The Fate of Rome (2): Plagues and a Crisis of Empire," History Compass 6, no. 12 (November 2018).
• Joseph B. Fullerton and Mark E. Silverman, "Claudius Galen of Pergamum: Authority of Medieval Medicine," Clinical Cardiology 32, no. 11 (January 2008): E82-E84.
• Joseph R. McConnell, Andrew I. Wilson, Andreas Stohl, Monica M. Arienzo, Nathan J. Chellman, Sabine Eckhardt, Elisabeth M. Thompson, A. Mark Pollard, and Jørgen Pender Steffensen, "Lead Pollution Recorded in Greenland Ice Indicates European Emissions Tracked Plagues, Wars, and Imperial Expansion during Antiquity," PNAS 115, no. 22 (May 2018): 5726-5731.
• J. Rufus Fears, "The Plague under Marcus Aurelius and the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Infectious Disease Clinics of North America 18 (2004): 65-77.
• Kyle Harper, The Fate of Rome (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017), 23-118.
• Mike Duncan, The History of Rome, Podcast Audio, 2007-2013. https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/the_history_of_rome/archives.html
• R. J. Littman and M. L. Littman, "Galen and the Antonine Plague," The American Journal of Philology 94, no. 3 (Autumn 1973): 243-255.
• R. P. Duncan-Jones, "The Impact of the Antonine Plague," Journal of Roman Archaeology 9 (1996): 108-136.
• "Smallpox," CDC, last modified June 7, 2016, https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/transmission/index.html.
• Vivian Nutton, "The Chronology of Galen's Early Career," The Classical Quarterly 23, no. 1 (May 1973): 158-171.
• Yuki Furuse, Akira Suzuki, and Hitoshi Oshitani, "Origin of Measles Virus: Divergence from Rinderpest Virus between the 11th and 12th Centuries," Virology Journal 7, no. 52 (March 2010): 1-4.
• Catherine Thėves, Eric Crubėzy, and Philippe Biagini, "History of Smallpox and Its Spread in Human Populations," Microbiology Spectrum 4, no. 4 (April 2015):
• Walter Scheidel, "A Model of Demographic and Economic Change in Roman Egypt after the Antonine Plague," Journal of Roman Archaeology 15 (2002): 97-114.

As the COVID-19 pandemic increasingly spreads across the globe, Bedside Rounds is going on hiatus. This short message explains why and gives some historical context. Stay in touch on Twitter in the upcoming months @AdamRodmanMD.

Over the past several centuries, the medical field has established a firm graph on the domain of the human body, with one very notable exception -- the teeth. In this episode, we're going to explore this historic split between medicine and dentistry, and the moment in history where the two fields could have been rejoined but were "rebuffed." Along the way we'll talk about barbers and enemas, a fun tool called the dental pelican, 19th century professional drama between doctors and dentists, and the sometimes disastrous consequences this can have for our patients.

Sources:

British Dental Association -- Dental Pelicans, retrieved from: https://bda.org/museum/collections/dental-equipment/pelican

"Dentistry," The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology

Gevitz N, Autonomous Profession or Medical Specialty: The Stomatological Movement and American Dentistry. Bulletin of the History of Medicine; Baltimore, Md. Vol. 62, Iss. 3, (Fall 1988): 407.

Loudon I, Why are (male) surgeons still addressed as Mr? BMJ. 2000 Dec 23; 321(7276): 1589–1591.

Otto M, Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America, The New Press, 2017.

Tung T and Organ CH, Ethics in Surgery: Historical Perspective Arch Surg. 2000;135(1):10-13.

Did Hippocrates call consults for chest pain? Were there specialists in black bile? Where does our poetic terminology for heart and lung sounds come from? Is there a historical parallel for #MedTwitter? I've fallen off the bus with #AdamAnswers, so in this month's episode I'm playing catch up on many of the amazing questions you guys send me with the first Winter Short (#spoileralert -- not actually short) -- the Backlog!

At the end of 2019, William Osler's legacy is stronger than ever; he has been called the "Father of Modern Medicine" and held up as the paragon of the modern physician. In this episode, I'm going to explore the historical Osler -- just who was William Osler in the context of rapidly changing scientific medicine at the dawn of the 20th century, and how did he become so influential? But I'm also going to explore Osler the myth -- what does the 21st century obsession with the man say about us, a century after his death?

Sources:

• Bliss M, William Osler: A Life in Medicine.
• Bryan CS, Osler goes viral: "The Fixed Period" revisited, Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2018 Oct; 31(4): 550–553.
• Cooper B, Osler's role in defining the third corpuscle, or "blood plates", Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2005 Oct; 18(4): 376–378.
• Davis E, Vaginismus, The medical news, 1884. Retrieved online from: https://archive.org/details/medicalnews45philuoft/page/672
• Flint AF, A Treatise on the Principles and Practice of Medicine. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com/books?id=1mvmA1ajwfUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
• Justin MS, "The Entry of Women into Medicine in America: Education and Obstacles 1847-1910". Retrieved from: https://www.hws.edu/about/blackwell/articles/womenmedicine.aspx
• Ludmerer KM, Cultural origins of residency training, OUP Blog, retrieved from https://blog.oup.com/2015/05/cultural-origins-residency-training/.
• Ludmerer KM, Learning to Heal: The Development of American Medical Education (New York: Basic, 1985).
• National Library of Medicine, The William Osler Papers, retrieved from: https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/gf/feature/biographical-overview
• Osler W, Aequanamitas. Retrieved from: https://medicalarchives.jhmi.edu:8443/osler/aequessay.htm
• Osler W, An Alabama Student and Other Biographical Essays, retrieved from: https://medicalarchives.jhmi.edu:8443/osler/alabacontents.htm
• Periyakoil VS, What Would Osler Do? J Palliat Med. 2013 Feb; 16(2): 118–119.
• Rezaie S, From Hippocrates to Osler to FOAM, retrieved from: https://rebelem.com/hippocrates-osler-foam/.
• Sokol D, Doctors: use social media with restraint, STAT 2019 Jun 10. Retrieved from: https://www.statnews.com/2019/06/10/doctors-social-media-restraint/
• Warner JH, The Therapeutic Perspective: Medical Practice, Knowledge, and Identity in America, 1783-1784.

What does it mean to know something in medicine? In this episode, we'll explore this question by developing a historical framework of medical epistemologies in a journey that involves King Nebuchadnezzar, citrus fruit, leeches, water pumps, ICD-10, Socrates, skepticism, and 1970's computer programs designed to replace doctors. This is a version of a Grand Rounds given at BIDMC on October 25, 2019.

Sources:

• Bothwell LE et al, "Assessing the Gold Standard -- Lessons from the History of RCTs," NEJM June 2, 2016.
• Khushf G, "A Framework for Understanding Medical Epistemologies," Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 38: 461-486, 2013.
• Guyatt G and Tonelli M, Med Roundtable Gen Med Ed.;June 13, 2012 1(1): 75 - 84.
• Morabia A, A History of Epidemiologic Methods and Concepts, 2004.
• Tonelli MR, "Integrating evidence into clinical practice: an alternative to evidence-based approaches," Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 12(3) 248-256.

Music from https://filmmusic.io

"Tango de Manzana" and "Return of the Mummy" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)

License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)