Every once in a while I do things that make Dr. Bruce Williams jokingly write back to me, "Oh, oh, Sukie's been thinking again." Today is one of those days. I'd like to know more about cytokine storms. I am wondering if perhaps there may be specific groups among the ferrets who get the current mystery disease/DIM who may be most vulnerable due to cytokine storms. (In humans these immune system responses are postulated as one reason why the very worst influenzas (like the one during the 19teens) are more likely to take young children, people 18 to 30, and women who have been pregnant in recent years. Some isolated areas with high birth rates were hit especially hard then. (The best survival was in ages 40 to 60 in humans in that pandemic, while people over 60 and especially a decade or more older simply are usually more prone to other infection related problems.) If something like this is happening in ferrets who get the mystery disease then the groups with the most active immune systems could be the ones who are most vulnerable and if so it may be useful to know which groups to not usually worry as much about. Also, in that situation it may be possible for elderly ferrets to have serious illness from the same disease but without the same symptom grouping which is caused by extreme immune response in those with stronger immune systems (if this is not an autoimmune disorder but a disease that triggers a disasterous cytokine storm in some groups), and in that case perhaps other age groups get the illness but sail through it. That is all only postulating, of course, so it easily could mean nothing at all. It just seems like maybe it is a possible interesting direction to learn more. I can do more internet searching, and will, of course, but if someone happens across an interesting non-internet reference on cytokine storms could you let me know, please, and maybe assist me in getting a copy when that is viable? I appreciate it. [Posted in FML issue 4808]