Influenza: The Virus and its Effects
Abstract
The flu, properly called influenza, is an amazingly widespread and widely known disease. There are many variations of the influenza virus, differing in severity, but not significantly different in function. The influenza virus infects epithelial cells in the respiratory tract, taking over the cell’s production mechanisms so more viruses are produced, eventually causing the host cells to burst. The body’s immune system tries to combat the infection from succeeding. This internal battle produces many outward symptoms including a fever and dry cough, among others. Influenza is not usually a fatal disease, but its high mutation rate insures its continuing import by allowing it to return in a different form every year.
The flu. Everyone from the oldest grandparent to the youngest child has heard of it. But what is the flu actually? First of all, what is behind its name? “Flu” isn’t actually the disease’s correct name. It’s true name, Influenza, is Italian for “influence”. Flu is an abbreviation of this. People used to believe that influenza was caused by an unhealthy influence from the heavens, hence the name (WHO).
The influenza virus is divided into three types, A, B and C. Influenza A is the most serious of the three. Influenza B is not as serious and less common, while influenza C is rarely noticed and only causes mild symptoms. Influenza A viruses are specified by their host of origin, geographic location of the first isolation, strain number and year of isolation. E.g. A/Swine/Iowa/15/30 (Wilschut 29). Influenza A viruses also have a classification determined by their type of Haemagglutinin and Neuraminidase. Haemagglutinin is necessary for entrance int...
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Wilschut, Jan C, PhD, Abraham M Palache, PhD, and Janet E McElhaney, MD, FRCPC, PACP, eds. Influenza. 2nd ed. Rapid Reference. Pennsylvania: Elsevier Ltd., 2006.
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 occurred during the midst of World War I, and it would claim more lives than the war itself. The disease erupted suddenly without a forewarning and spread rapidly across the globe. It seemed as though all of humanity had fallen under the mercy of this deadly illness. Influenza had very clear symptoms as described by William Collier in his letter to The Lancet. After a patient seizes their temperature can run up to 105° or more while their pulse averages at about 90 beats per minute. The high temperature and low pulse are frequently combined with epistaxis (nosebleed) and cyanosis (blueness of the skin). The epistaxis is caused by the high temperature and the cyanosis is caused by a lack of oxygen due to the decreased pulse (Kent 34). The author of Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919, Susan Kinglsey Kent, provides a brief history of the pandemic and documents from the time period. Many of the included documents show how unprepared and unorganized governments attempted to contain and control a disease they had never experienced, and how the expectations of the governments changed as a result of their successes and failures.
The 1918-1919 influenza pandemic stretched its lethal tentacles all over the globe, even to the most remote areas of the planet, killing fifty million people or possibly even more. Influenza killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century, and it killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years.3 Influenza normally kills the elderly and infants, but this deadly and abnormal strand claimed young people, those in their twenties or thirties as its target victims. Such was the case for Jules Bergeret. Jules was a “big, strapping man” who owned a tavern during the epidemic, and on December 11 he celebrated his 32 birthday. Within two weeks Jules, his mother, his sister, and his 25 year old wife all fell victim to the flu, and on December 22 he was dead.4 The virus left victims bleeding out of their nose ears and mouth; some coughing so hard that autopsies would later show that abdominal muscles and rib cartilage had been torn. Victims ...
The Influenza virus is a unique respiratory viral disease that can have serious economic and social disruption to society. The virus is airborne transmitted through droplets release by coughing or sneezing from an infected person or by touching infected surfaces. Symptoms range from mild to severe and may even result in death. People with the virus usually experience fever, headache, shivering, muscle pain and cough, which can lead to more severe respiratory illness such as pneumonia. People most susceptible to the flu virus are elderly individuals and young children as well as anyone whose health or immune system has been compromise. The most effective way to counteract the influenza virus is to get the flu vaccine which is available by shots or nasal spray before the flu season as well as practicing safe hygiene. (CDC, 2013)
“The Influenza Pandemic of 1918.” Billings, Molly. Stanford University Virology. June 1, 1997. retrieved from http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/
In 1976, due to an outbreak of influenza at Fort Dix, New Jersey, the United States set a precedent in immunology by attempting to vaccinate the entire population of the country against the possibility of a swine-type Influenza A epidemic. While a great many people were successfully immunized in a very short period of time, the National Influenza Immunization Program (NIIP) quickly became recognized as a failure, one reason being that the feared epidemic never surfaced at all. But this massive undertaking deserves more analysis than just a simple repudiation. For example, all evidence linked to the pathology, microbiology, and historical cycle of influenza and the outbreak at Fort Dix suggests that the reactions of the scientists and other personnel involved in the NIIP were correct. However, one must also acknowledge the many complications and misjudgments that plagued the program after its initiation, from biological difficulties, logistical problems, to tensions with the media. The swine flu is a historical event that needs to be evaluated, regarding both its successes and its failures, so that lessons can be learned for future immunization programs.
From the time of its first recorded incident in 412 BC (Adams 1) to 1918, influenza was never taken seriously. With symptoms similar to the common cold, most people disregarded influenza as a minor illness, nothing more. As Lynette Iezzoni quoted in her book, Influenza 1918, influenza was thought to be “quite a Godsend! Everybody ill, nobody dying” besides the very old and feeble (16). However, the influenza virus was out to prove them wrong in the influenza pandemic of 1918.
The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed more people than the Great War, known today as World War I (WWI), at somewhere between twenty and forty million people. (1) Influenza is a virus that appeared in 1918 and caused a pandemic. It made an enormous impact that is still significant to the world today. It has pushed scientists to make advancements in the medicine and vaccination industry that continue to grow each and every day. Influenza may be a horrible thing, but without it we wouldn’t be where we are today.
Influenza Encyclopedia. (n.d.). The American Influenza Epidemic of 1918: A Digital Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 27, 2013, from http://www.influenzaarchive.org/
“Seasonal Influenza-Associated Hospitalization in the United States.” USA.gov, 24 June 2011. Web. 31 Jan. 2012
Loo, Yueh-Ming and Michael Gale, Jr. “Influenza: Fatal Immunity and the 1918 Virus.” Nature 445 (2007): 267-268. 23 July. 2008 .
Influenza is a viral disease that’s communicable and affects an estimated 5-15% of the world's population during the cold seasons and results in 500,000 deaths annually (PL, 2010). Common symptoms that may be experienced
Influenza is a very serious disease that can lead to hospitalization and even fatalities. There are many different strands, infecting people of all ages and originating from different animals, which can be extremely fatal if the right care isn’t provided. Care for flu patients have changes tremendously over the years from once having no vaccine to having a limited amount of vaccines, only for the most prone individuals, to now having yearly vaccines to prevent the most common cases of flu. Doctors have learned just how deadly the flu virus can be which has led to the importance of them educating their patients of the flu virus and explaining the importance of getting the vaccine in order for their bodies to get an immunity of the many flu viruses that many in our country have previously faced. Many in our county in the past have died from the H1N1 virus due to no vaccines, poor precautions, and being uneducated on the virus because it was new, but new vaccines and precautions are being taken in order to prevent pandemics such as the Flu Pandemic of 1918.
The severity of this occurrence of influenza is most evident with our young folk who have become quite susceptible to this recent "epidemic." Yet, people of all ages, genders and social standings are prone to the illness. No one is safe, unlike the initial reports produced by the Board of Health, which suggested that Americans were impervious to the "Spanish influenza."
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.
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