Influenza Virus A can affect the human body in so many ways. The study of the virus to body relationship can help medical professionals understand the role of illness and future consequences it can play on human health. A major point that has been tested in various ways is the relationship of natural killer cells with the virus. Natural killer cells are known as defensive cells in the human body that protect against infections (Schultz-Cherry 2011). These cells are signaled to recruit to the lung when there is an immediate viral illness present (Schultz-Cherry 2011). Their function to release cytokines plays an important role in providing this line of defense, to allow such early protection within infection (Schultz-Cherry 2011). Without …show more content…
Since cytokines are involved with viral replication to provide an immediate defense mechanism, the influenza virus works with this replication to allow their own replication within the natural killer cells (Mao et. al 2009). Mao et. al (2009) studied the effects of the virus on the natural killer cells and has found that now the virus can infect the cells causing cell apoptosis. Using clathrin- and caveoline-dependent endocytosis, scientists examined the outcome of what could occur if the influenza virus invades the natural killer cells (Mao et. al 2009). It was noticed the role of defense certainly altered and higher virus mRNA was found in the defense cells (Mao et. al 2009). The increase of the virus in natural killer cells have a direct relationship to apoptosis, leaving less healthy cells for defensive purposes (Mao et. al 2009). The outcome has brought to light the new way for viruses to invade the immune system of human and animal organisms; attack and replicate within (Mao et. al 2009). This viral mechanism is an important example of virus and its capability for alteration to survive against any defensive mechanisms to survive and …show more content…
But the influenza virus has so many strains that sometimes it is hard to keep up with medications that must be strain-specific to provide a defense. Smith et. al found that defective interfering viruses may result from deletions in the viral components allowing those cells to form and act against the infective viruses (2009). Examining the levels of the detective interfering viruses in the human respiratory tract cells and its replicating purposes concluded that these mutated versions may act as an antiviral in humans (Smith et. al 2009). I believe that if scientists can further consider the study of DI viruses, then we can look a different alternative to treat influenza viruses. Instead of producing several vaccines we should further study antivirals that are made from the actual influenza virus itself. This can expand the knowledge and treatment of those fighting against this infection within their respiratory
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...
Current influenza vaccines are about 70% to 90% effective in preventing influenza in healthy adults. Since the vaccines are made of dead fragments of influenza viruses, they cannot cause influenza. The strains of influenza that circulate change every year and therefore, it is necessary to make a new influenza vaccine annually. After vaccination, the body's immune system produces antib... ... middle of paper ... ...
While influenza, or the "flu", is not commonly recognized as an extremely lethal disease, the pathology of influenza, and especially of the kind found at Fort Dix, does suggest that an immunization program was a reasonable course to take in 1976. In the public's mind, influenza is often not seen as a specific disease, using interchangeable names for it like "flu", "gripe", and "virus". (Silverstein: 1) However, influenza is very different from an everyday low fever or "stomach flu". It is a respiratory infection, connected with a fever, coughing, and muscle aches, which often la...
Loo, Yueh-Ming and Michael Gale, Jr. “Influenza: Fatal Immunity and the 1918 Virus.” Nature 445 (2007): 267-268. 23 July. 2008 .
Kimball, Dr. John. A.S.A. “Influenza.” 8 Feb. 2007. Kimball’s Biology Page. 23 July 2007 http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/I/Influenza.html>.
Influenza is a major public health problem which outbreaks all over the world. Resulting in considerable sickness and death rates. Furthermore, it is a highly infectious airborne disease and is caused by the influenza virus. Influenza is transmitted easily from one person to another person which has a great impact on society. When a member of society becomes sick, it is more prone to spread to other people. In the United States, every year between 5 to 20 percent of the population is affected by influenza. As a result of this, between 3,000 and 49,000 deaths have occurred per year (Biggerstaff et al., 2014). Therefore, the influenza vaccine is the most effective strategy to prevent influenza. This essay will examine two significant reasons for influenza vaccination which are the loss of workforce and economic burden as well as one effect regarding herd immunity.
Medical officials agree that one of the characteristic features of the influenza is its air-born infectivity. "One case to-day may mean a hundred to-morrow and thousands within a week," according to the chief medical officer of the Local Government Board. To protect oneself against the infectious illness that can spread without direct contact with the sick, it is recommended that people situate themselves in well-ventilated rooms. However, once you have contracted the disease, you are to quarantine yourself in an isolated home.5 Other symptoms of influenza include extreme exhaustion, aching limbs, headaches and sometimes, inflammation of nasal mucous membranes.6
Tumpey, T. M. (2005). Characterization Of The Reconstructed 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic Virus. Science, 310(5745), 77-80.
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...
...mptoms and known pattern of disease. Experiments by scientists, Nicolle and Le Bailly in Paris, were the earliest explanations that influenza was caused by a filter-passing virus. They proved that influenza was due to a submicroscopic infectious agent and not a bacteria. Scientific experiments, such as these, had immediate preventative applications. They were part of an effort to create a vaccine that would prevent the influenza. Vaccines were considered the best preventative treatment at the time. Several scientists tried to create effective vaccines, each with a different understanding of the virus. Dr. Rosenow invented a vaccine to target the multiple bacterial agents involved from the serum of patients. He aimed to raise the immunity against the bacteria, and not the cause of the initial symptoms (Virginia).
Vaccines save us from being infected with viruses. They save approximately 2.5 million people from death every year. However, while they help save lives, vaccines still have both minor and severe side effects. This can result in nausea, severe sickness, and in rare cases, death. Every year, 3,000 to 4,500 people in the United States are hospitalized due to vaccine side effects. It is extremely important for all communities to be informed about the side effects of vaccines and what causes them. Also, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the influenza vaccine is only 48% effective, due to constant mutation of the virus (Scutti, 2017). This means, the influenza vaccine does not work on all
In order to decide whether or not the swine flu vaccine is completely necessary, one must first gain a better understanding of the topic. It is a scientifically known fact that the swine flu is a result of a virus. A virus is a capsule of genetic material that causes infection in the body. The infectious particles are made up of nucleic acid enclosed in a protein shell, called a capsid. It cannot be considered a living organism like the disease causing agent of bacteria, because it does not carry out all the characteristics of life. Specifically, it cannot reproduce on its own.
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 is the common name influenza which is a virus that attacks the respiratory system. The flu virus releases its genetic information into the cells nucleus to replicate itself. When the cell dies, those copies are released and they affect other cells throughout the rest of the body. With that happening the virus weakens the immune system. When your sick with the flu, your body builds up a defense by making antibodies against it. The flu virus spreads through air when a person coughs, sneezes, or speaks.
Writing Committee of the WHO Consultation on Clinical Aspects of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Influenza. (2009) Medical Progress Clinical Aspects of Pandemic 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection