Title
Influenza is a serious some time deadly disease that has global circulation and occurs yearly from the late autumn to the early spring and is most commonly referred to as the flu (Bridges, CB. 2002; Rüttimann, R. W., Bonvehí, P. E., Vilar-Compte, D., Isturiz, R. E., Labarca, J. A., & Vidal, E. I., 2013; Pleschka, S., Ludwig, S., Planz, O., & Wolff, T. 2009). There are three genera of influenza: A, B and C (CDC, 2014; Duncan, D 2013). Influenza A and B are the most common infections, furthermore A is more severe than B (CDC, 2014; Duncan, D. 2013). This paper will focus on influenza A as it is the most been responsible for epidemics and pandemics in humans and animals throughout history (Pleschka, S., Ludwig, S., Planz, O., & Wolff, T. 2009).
Etiology
Influenza A is a virus from the Orthomyxoviridae family that contains three species that were discussed above (Baumen, R. 2014; Duncan, D. 2013; Pleschka, S., Ludwig, S., Planz, O., & Wolff, T. 2009). Influenza is a disease that rarely attacks cells outside the lung and is there for classified as respiratory disease (Baumen, R 2014). Influenza A illness is caused by the influenza A virion that is made up of eight different negative single stranded RNA (ssRNA) molecules enclosed by a pleomorphic lipid envelope studded with two types of prominent glycoproteins spikes made of hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) (Baumen, R. 2014; Bridges, CB. 2002; Pleschka, S., Ludwig, S., Planz, O., & Wolff, T. 2009). These glycoproteins divide influenza A in to subtypes; there are eighteen different HA and eleven different NA (Bridges, CB. 2002).
Mode of Transmission
The flu is transferred from infected person to susceptible person by air born droplets from a cough or sneeze of the inf...
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