influenza

Throughout 1918 and 1919, influenza spread quickly in three waves killing an estimated 50 million to 100 million people worldwide. With the best-recorded first case having occurred in Fort Riley, the contagious flu spread across military camps around the United States. Due to the world war, the influenza virus was brought over to Europe where it infected people in nearly every country. This disease would end up causing one of the greatest pandemics in human history, but would also catalyze great advancements in science and medicine.

1. The influenza virus is an enveloped virus that contains a genome of eight genes that define what the virus is. Everything begins when the virus enters the airways. Here, influenza viruses specifically attach to the surface of epithelial cells. The viral membrane envelope contains the neuraminidase (NA) protein, which is important for the efficient release of newly produced viruses. It also contains the matrix 2 (M2) ion channel that promotes viral structural changes during cellular entry as well as the influenza hemagglutinin (HA) protein, the key player for viral internalization, which facilitates viral binding to sialic acid decorated receptors on host cells, causing adsorption to the host cell (Samji, p. 3). Barry compares the HA proteins to little spikes and the NA proteins to tiny trees that both protrude all around the surface of the virus (p. 103). When the HA protein spikes come into contact with the sialic acid molecules, both structures bind to one another. Once this binding holds the virus and host cell together, the virus has achieved its first task of adsorption. Next, the virus particles are internalized into endosomes by clathrin mediated endocytosis. The pH of the endosomes drops tr...

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...y do not have energy metabolism, they do not grow or produce waste products, and they don’t respond to stimuli. Although they replicate and produce more of one another, viruses can’t reproduce independently without invading a living cell. Because viruses don’t fulfill all of the characteristics of life, they are not living organisms.

4b. I would definitely recommend this book to a friend. The way Barry presented the science behind the virus and the medicine of the time in a historical context made the book easier to read and made it more interesting. It was easier to understand and retain the actual scientific facts pertaining to the influenza virus because I was reading it in a relevant historical context and not just trying to memorize it like I would from a textbook. I personally enjoy reading about war and disaster because the content is often very interesting.