In today’s times how do we still have the flu? The flu, or influenza, is a very complex virus. We cannot just give you a shot, and you will never get the flu again. Many other diseases can be cured or prevented via vaccination, but not the flu. Why? If the flu cannot be cured then what do flu shots do?
The Flu is not one strain of a virus; instead there are many strains of the Influenza virus. These strains are broken up into categories such as Influenza A, B, C. Influenza A is carried mostly by wild aquatic birds (Influenza). Influenza B usually only infects humans, and Influenza C infects pigs, dogs, and humans (Influenza). Influenza A is the most common category that crosses over. This means it moves from one species to another species. A few people contract the virus from the source animals, and then it is spread from human to human.
If humans can contract Influenza from animals, can animals catch influenza from humans? The answer is yes. Pigs are normally the animals that can catch the human influenza, but this is where things get interesting (Diseases). If a pig is infected with Avian Influenza A and Human Influenza A at the same weird things can happen (Influenza (disease)). The viruses like to trade their genetic information, and then they create a new strain of human susceptible Avian Influenza. No human would have immunity to this because this is a new strain entirely. According to the CDC this is what caused the Bird Flu epidemic.
Influenza A is the most complex of the categories of the Influenza virus because Influenza A can be categorized into something called serotypes. These are categories based on the antibody response to the virus. The known serotypes that have infected humans are: H1N1 (Spanish and Swi...
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Works Cited
Transmission of Influenza A Viruses Between Animals and People. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2014.
"Diseases from Animals, on MedicineNet.com." MedicineNet. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
"How the Flu Virus Can Change: “Drift” and “Shift”." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 08 Feb. 2011. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
"Influenza (disease)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
"Influenza Pandemic." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Jan. 2014. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
"Influenza." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2014.
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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...
The influenza virus is most commonly spread from person to person by coughing or sneezing. The virus can also be spread by touching an object that was recently contaminated. Then accidently touching their mouth or
“Selecting the Viruses in the Seasonal Influenza (Flu) Vaccine.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. USA.gov, 9 March 2011. Web. 19 Jan. 2010
Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. (2011, November 8). Influenza A virus subtype H1N1. Retrieved on November 11, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H1N1
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.
Swine flu is a disease that has placed a burden on humanity for many years. The virus of swine flu has a very intriguing history as well. Swine flu had originated from the first influenza pandemic in 1918. The actual swine flu virus had come from a pig in Iowa in 1931. Two years later a human strand of swine flu was found in London for the very first time. This was later followed by the Hong Kong flu pandemic in 1968 which had killed up to one million people worldwide. Many years after these pandemics had occurred, the first cases of swine flu were found in California and Texas in March of 2009. This pandemic killed 25,174 people who were infected with swine flu. A couple of months later, the United States and the United Kingdom began testing people for the swine flu and started vaccination programs. Swine flu has had a long history and has taken a large number of lives in the past with worldwide pandemics. As a result, countries like the United States started to take measures toward vaccination. The virus has many different ways of being transmitted, signs and symptoms, areas of the world it infects, and treatment plans.
Influenza is a contagious respiratory virus. Influenza, the RNA virus, make a few genera in the orthomyxovirdae family. The several genera of Influenza discovered
Influenza viruses are subcategorized into Influenza A and Influenza B and within those subgroups there are strains associated
Just like its namesake, Swine Influenza indeed was first discovered as a respiratory illness in pigs caused by influenza A (CDC.gov, 2016). However, variance in one or more genes in the virus, caused the mutation A/New Jersey/76, increasing the zoonotic effects of the virus (CDC.gov, 2016). The potential for humans to become infected now exist briefly perplexing immunologist and epidemiologist in its early stages. Transmission was linked to close respiratory contact with infected swine and or inhaling dust or hay infected with droplets of the
What is Influenza? Influenza is a highly contagious viral infection of the respiratory passageways. Influenza causes a fever, severe aching, and catarrh. What is catarrh, you may ask? Catarrh is mucus. Specifically it is the build-up of mucus in the nose or throat. The build-up of this mucus makes it harder for you to breathe through these airways. What are the transmission routes of influenza? The influenza virus is a contagious virus. People with flu can spread it to others up to six feet away. Most experts think that the spread of the flu virus is mainly spread by droplets when people with influenza sneeze, cough, or talk. It can be transmitted through the air and coming in contact with someone that is ill.
There are three different influenza pathogens, for each variation of the disease . Type A influenza is considered the most dangerous to humans, as it causes the most deaths, although, this disease does infect many mammalian and avian species aswell. This pathogen has the ability to make an antigenic shift, morphing into other forms of viral make up. It is thought that this pathogen has 25 different subtypes. Type B influenza almost exclusively affects humans. This disease is far safer as it does not have the ability to manipulate its viral make up so quickly. Type C influenza is exclusive to humans. It is the least dangerous to the infected subject, with the mildest symptoms. This type of influenza is thought to be of little medical threat to the human
A cough or sneeze can spread a few thousand germs around the room. Swine Flu is caused by the influenza virus that normally infects pigs. The main transmission isn't from pigs to people, but from person to person. Swine Flu is known to have started around 2008, researchers believe it lingered in Mexico for a while and was mistaken for the common flu. It spread from pigs mucus to humans and then with people travelling around the world by human to human contact, sneezing, coughing, and even by standing near someone talking (droplets of saliva) with the virus.
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.
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.
According to the Swine flu investigation team on April 15 and April 17, 2009, novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus (S-OIV) was isolated from two epidemiologically unlinked patients in the United States. The same strain was identified in other countries such as Mexico and Canada. In the United States 60% of patients were 18 years of age or younger suggesting that the younger population was more susceptible to the transmission of S-OIV or the possibility that the older population had developed a small amount of antibodies from the 1976 swine influenza vaccine (H1N1). 18% of the patients had recently traveled to Mexico, and 16% were identified from school outbreaks. (France, Jackson & Schrag, 2010) The most common presenting symptoms were fever (94% of patients), cough (92%), and sore throat (66%); 25% of patients had diarrhea, and 25% were experiencing emesis. Therefore, the criteria characterizing the S-OIV infection are comparable to the ...