Have you noticed that influenza has been in a bit of an uproar in the world for the last few past years? When news spread out about the two teams of researchers had purposefully tweaked H5N1 bird flu in the lab to potentially make it more transmissible among human beings. Those two scientists Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Ron Fouchier had with the expectation of swift publication. The National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) did something unprecedented: they ruled that the two papers should be censored if published, that they should be scrubbed of the complete methods and viral mutations that the researchers studied, in order to head off the risk that terror groups could use the information to craft a deadly bioweapon. If you didn’t …show more content…
It can only be transmitted through feces, mucus or saliva. Birds that are infected with the virus and three or more touches through the facial openings, there is a 90% or more chance that whoever touched it will become infected with H5N1 flu. But, if humans take safety precautions, such as hand washing it should be easy to prevent the spread of this virus. Human to human transmission has only been seen two cases, both outside the United States, one in Indonesia and the other in Thailand. This disease only been transmitted through these people because they did not take safety precaution which was needed to protect themselves. The case in Indonesia was a male poultry worker who was infected with H5N1 flu. He was then contaminated with the rest of his family with whom he close contact with. However the case in Thailand was very similar he was a poultry worker as well, who became very sick after been infected with H5N1 virus. He also infected other family members through close contact. There has similar mutation which led up to dreadful Spanish flu in 1918 that concerns the World Health Organization (WHO) that it could happen again. There is a 99% chance that if the virus mutate, it will be a lot more deadly than the flu of 1918. There have been several reasons to lethality, one of the reasons is that the world has more highly populated and city has become denser. …show more content…
In 2005, 10% of the bar-headed geese were killed by H5N1 flu. However, most of the birds that had been infected during these small outbreaks were located in a small decay poultry farms in central and southeastern Asia. Many of the bar-headed geese died, and the species is still trying to exist. They’re also not being eaten but humans, so therefore, the geese that are sick will not infect humans. The benefits of these countries are adopting more measures to contain this dangerous flu, such as examining the poultry farms more carefully and making sure they birds are living an a sanitary environment. The H5N1 flu has never been found in the United States. Nearly all of the bird in the United States has been vaccinated and not one bird has been recorded to have been infected or sick with H5N1 flu. Even though there is the possibility that the infected birds could and probably have migrate from Asia to Alaska, it is not thought to be a major problem for the human population since the migration of the birds are not commonly used as food. With human contact would be scarce with these birds. Many wild birds, such as geese, ducks, and hawks, will likely to be the most affected in this scenario. These wild birds almost never come in close contact with humans and the only plausible way to contract the H5N1 flu from a wild bird is
This summer we had an opportunity to dive into the world of bioweapons, through Richard Preston’s novel The Demon in the Freezer. His book explored the colorful world of smallpox and its use as a biological weapon. Earlier this week we were graced with this authors present for an ACES event. He discussed some of the found topics in his book such as animal testing, what small pox is, and even its eradication. One of the great things we had the chance of vocalizing were our many opinions on the gloom associated with this intriguing disease.
It has not taken human to human transmission yet, that we know of. So far all cases of the virus result from people coming into close contact with bird blood or droppings. If the transmission of the virus does take human to human form, it could unleash a global pandemic. This is the first time in history that humans have been able to prepare themselves for an epidemic. The bird flu virus travels with migrating birds.
However due to globalization, import and export viruses is more easily transmitted. Over the past century the global community especially Asian has been affected with new strains of the influenza virus. The changes in the virus can occur in two ways “antigenic drift” which are gradual changes in the virus over time. This change produces new strains that the antibody may not recognize. “Antigenic shift” On the other is a sudden change in the influenza virus which ‘’ results in a new influenza A subtype or a virus with a hemagglutinin or a hemagglutinin and neuraminidase combination that has emerged from an animal population,” as seen with H5N1 virus. This change leaves people defenseless against this new virus. (CDC, 2013) Currently there is no vaccine to combat all strains therefore “Planning and preparedness for implementing mitigation strategies during a pandemic requires participation by all levels o...
Silverstein, Arthur M. Pure Politics and Impure Science: The Swine Flu Affair. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1981.
One of the most virulent strains of influenza in history ravaged the world and decimated the populations around the world. Present during World War I, the 1918 strain of pandemic influenza found many opportunities to spread through the war. At the time, science wasn’t advanced enough to study the virus, much less find a cure; medical personnel were helpless when it came to fighting the disease, and so the flu went on to infect millions and kill at a rate 25 times higher than the standard.
Selgelid, M. (2007). A Tale of Two Studies:Ethics, Bioterrorism, and the Censorship of Science. Project Muse, 3, 35-43. Retrieved February 13, 2011, from http://journals.ohiolink.edu/ejc/article.cgi?issn=1552146x&issue=v37i0003&article=35_atotsebatcos
Other ways hepatitis A can be transmitted from person to person are through direct contact with an infected person, such as sexual contact, and sharing of needles for intravenous drug use. Hepatitis A can also be transmitted by coming in contact with contaminated food or water. Also, foods that are uncooked or undercooked and have been contaminated with Hepatitis A can transmit the virus. Bennett, A. J.,2016; World Health Organization, 2017) Hepatitis A can affect a person of any age group.
Kamradt-Scott, Adam. "The Politics Of Medicine And The Global Governance Of Pandemic Influenza." International Journal Of Health Services: Planning, Administration, Evaluation 43.1 (2013): 105-121. MEDLINE with Full Text. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
Recent research shows that, there are three major means by which infections can be transmitted and they include direct transmission, indirect transmission and airborne transmission (Hinman,Wasserheit and Kamb,1995). Direct transmission occurs when the physical contact between an infected person and s susceptible person takes place (division of public health, 2011). An example is a health care worker who attends to an Ebola patient, without gloves, gown and mask plus forget to wash his or her hand with soap and hot water and or a person having flu without the use of mask or washes his hand after sneezing easily passes the infection to the other through hand shake or surface touch, living the bacteria there for another vulnerable person to also touch if the surface is not disinfected with bleach. Studies makes it clear that, the spreads takes effect when disease-causing microorganisms pass from the infected person to the healthy person through direct physical contact such as touching of blood, body fluids, contact with oral secretion, bites kissing, contact with body lesions and even sexual contact. However, measles and chicken pox are said to be conditions spread by direct
At no time was a search for the cure for influenza more frantic than after the devastating effects of the pandemic of 1918. The pandemic killed somewhere between twenty and a hundred million people, making it twenty five times more deadly than the ordinary cough and sneeze flu. The symptoms of this flu were like something straight out of a horror movie: the victim’s facial complexion changed to a dark, brownish purple, the feet turned black, and they began to cough up blood. Eventually, death was caused, literally by drowning, when the victim’s lungs filled with their own blood. The first scientist to claim to solve the enigma of influenza was Dr. Friedrich Johann Pfeiffer. He isolated a bacterium he named Hemophilus influenzae from the respiratory tract of those who had the flu in the pandemic of 1890. He was believed to be correct in his discovery until the pandemic of 1918, when scientists searched the respiratory tracts of influenza victims and only sometimes found his bacterium. Robert E. Shope and his mentor Paul Lewis were the next to attempt to crack the code of influenza. They chose to study the disease in pigs, a controversial choice because many people believed that the swine influenza pigs were contracting was not the same as the human flu. The first experiment they ran was ba...
A few years before 1918, in the height of the First World War, a calamity occurred that stripped the globe of at least 50 million lives. (Taubenberger, 1918) This calamity was not the death toll of the war; albeit, some individuals may argue the globalization associated with the First World War perpetuated the persistence of this calamity. This calamity was referred to the Spanish Flu of 1918, but calling this devastating pestilence the “Spanish Flu” may be a historical inaccuracy, as research and historians suggest that the likelihood of this disease originating in Spain seams greatly improbable. Despite it’s misnomer, the Spanish Flu, or its virus name H1N1, still swept across the globe passing from human to human by exhaled drops of water that contained a deadly strand of RNA wrapped with a protein casing. Individuals who were unfortunate enough to come in contact with the contents of the protein casing generally developed severe respiratory inflammation, as the Immune system’s own response towards the infected lung cells would destroy much of the lungs, thus causing the lungs to flood with fluids. Due to this flooding, pneumonia was a common cause of death for those infected with Spanish Flu. Due its genetic similarity with Avian Flu, the Spanish Flu is thought to be descended from Avian Flu which is commonly known as “Bird Flu.” (Billings,1997) The Spanish Flu of 1918 has had a larger impact in terms of global significance than any other disease has had because it was the most deadly, easily transmitted across the entire globe, and occurred in an ideal time period for a disease to happen.
Hvistendahl, M, Cohen, J et. al. 2013. ‘New Flu Virus in China Worries and Confuses’ Science 340: 129-130
The swine influenza or swine flu is a respiratory disease in pigs that is caused by the type A influenza viruses. These viruses are referred to as swine flu viruses but scientifically the main virus is called the swine triple reassortant (tr) H1N1 influenza virus. When the viruses infect humans they are called variant viruses. This infection has been caused in humans mainly by the H1N1v virus in the United States. The H1N1 virus originates in animals due to improper conditions and the food they ingest. The virus stays in latency form, thus harmless to the respective animal. The longer the animals survive the more likely the virus is to develop and strengthen making it immune to vaccines. The virus reproduced through the lytic cycle. The virus injects its own nucleic acids into a host cell and then they form a circle in the center of the cell. Rather than copying its own nucleic acids, the cell will copy the viral acids. The copies of viral acids then organize themselves as viruses inside of the cell. The membrane will eventually split leaving the viruses free to infect other cells.
The Flu was first founded in Seattle September, 1918. The avian flu can also be known as the “Bird Flu”. The bird flu is being passed around by migratory birds. It can be transmitted from birds to mammals and in some limited circumstances to humans. The flu will also be known as the H5N1 virus. The H5N1 virus has raised concerns about a potential human pandemic because its virulent (deadly; extremely dangerous) and it can evolve like other influenza viruses. As many other viruses and illnesses the flu can be a lot more deadlier. When you get the flu the lungs are severely harmed from infected cells called macrophages and T-cells. The virus can spread way beyond the lungs but generally do not. Many people catch the flu and think they have the common cold because of some of the same symptoms. But actually the flu can be more dangerous if you don’t treat it immediately.
Recent concerns regarding the risks of Avian flu and other exotic diseases prompted some local poultry farmers to adopt strict biosecurity protocols in order to keep their birds safe. ...