Taking a Look at Influenza A Virus

The Great Influenza is a book not many enjoy. However, Dr. Petri enjoys this book for reasons that are lost to many. The book starts off on part one chapter 1 the Warriors. it starts off with imagery of September 12, 1876 talking about it crowd in an auditorium in Baltimore’s Academy of music. this was too launch John Hopkins University where they say they would change all of American education and in this first page you meet Thomas H. Huxley an English scientist who is the keynote speaker of this event. then give me George Armstrong Custer who “led the seventh Cavalry to with the stretching at the hands of him video savages resisting encroachment of the white man.” customer had spoke on the front page of the Washington star. then the book starts going deeper into detail

In his nonfiction text, The Great Influenza, John M. Barry explains that scientific research is an uncertain process. Barry supports this explanation by using rhetorical strategies such as repetition and a metaphor. Barry’s purpose is to prove scientific research is a confident process that allows one to be courageous on the side of uncertainty. Barry uses formal tone with his audience that goes beyond researchers.

Review of The Great Influenza By John M.Barry Published by Penguin Group Published date: 2005 Review by Zijie Wang SS-292 Epidemic disease Pratt Institute Prof. John Frangos Zijie Wang Epidemic Disease Pro.

According to the CDC there was a breakout in “1918-19 Flu pandemic, which killed as many as 50 million people worldwide”causing the biggest breakout for Influenza (Reconstruction of 1918 Influenza Pandemic Virus). Influenza originated from Asia and the Middle East. Virtually all mammalian species have influenza. Influenza is a contagious respiratory illness caused by the Influenza virus. There are three types of Influenza: type A, type B, and type C. Influenza has numerous symptoms, vaccinations, and is unlikely to kill it’s host.

Describe two innate (nonspecific) immune responses that might prevent an influenza virus from causing any noticeable infection, even if the virus enters your respiratory passages.

Flu season is upon us and influenza has hit our area particularly hard this year. The flu is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that infect the nose, throat, and lungs that spread from person to person through sneezing and coughing. The flu can also be spread surfaces when infected people touch surfaces such as door knobs, shopping carts, computer keyboards, countertops, etc. Symptoms of the flu include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Though it can be difficult to avoid the flu entirely, there are things you can do to protect yourself and your household from getting the flu by following these steps at home. Continue these steps daily throughout the flu season.

Every year, millions of people start talking about the influenza virus and getting their vaccines as the flu season approaches, which starts around the October-November period and reaches its peak between December and March. Therefore, public health officials around the world- and in the U.S in particular- are constantly challenged by properly preparing for the annual influenza dilemma, given that this viruses, and other respiratory viruses, are a serious health threat to the U.S population and the world as a whole. Furthermore, what makes the influenza virus even more challenging to control is that it can mutate rapidly and reassort to form new strains, having the ability to reside in multiple animal hosts. In fact, many scientists and researchers have been doing in-depth intensive research so as to understand the mechanism behind this unique characteristic of the virus, try to find new ways to control it, and explore different areas of protection and vaccination.

I think many can testify to being guilty of brushing off symptoms like a stuffy nose, and the feeling of fatigue as the common cold, treatable by over the counter drugs. We tend to ignore these minor signs of what could possibly be a very dangerous and severe viral infection, this respiratory infection being the influenza virus. Flu activity most often appears between the months of February and May, leading many to believe their symptoms might be caused by allergies. Although symptoms are very similar, the flu can cause epidemics with the deadly outcomes, as the common cold is just a nuisance for us.

Influenza, commonly called "the flu," is an illness caused by RNA viruses that infect the respiratory tract of many animals, birds, and humans. Influenza viruses are found in body fluids such as saliva and mucous and commonly transmitted via tiny, air-born droplets created through sneezing and coughing. Depending on the conditions and temperature of the environment, the Influenza virus can remain infectious for up to one month. Transmission occurs as a new host comes into contact with viruses dispersed into the air or onto surfaces of objects. The main targets of the influenza virus are the columnar epithelial cells of the trachea, bronchi and bronchioles. HA binds to galactose-bound sialic acid on the surface of host cells. The HA binding

IAV is a virus classified as part of the orthomyxoviridae and one of the causative agents of influenza or “the flu”. (Edinger, Pohl & Stertz, 2014) Its natural reservoir is primarily wild aquatic fowl where it is mostly nonpathogenic, though zoonotic infections can occur in mammals and domestic fowl. (Klenk, Matrosovich & Stech, 2008) The jump between species often results in the establishment of highly pathogenic variants that can have devastating effects, as was the case of the “Spanish” influenza pandemic of 1918. (Taubenberger, 2006) The infection across special barriers is dependent on changes to the structure of glycoproteins on the viral envelope, particularly haemagglutinin (HA). The different subtypes of HA and neuraminidase (NA) serve to classify different viral lineages. These changes in the structure can result in proteolytic activation; that when coupled to changes of receptor binding specificity allow for interspecies transmission. (Klenk, Matrosovich & Stech, 2008) The modifications can affect the pathogenicity of the virus even within the same species, which can allow for infection of new cell types, or even systemic disease. (Steinhauer, 1999) These mutations accumulate through successive replications or genetic re-assortment during confection. The resulting structural changes account for the observed antigenic drift that causes loss of immunity despite prior exposures to the virus. This evolutionary process drives the consistent

The flu (influenza) is a highly contagious virus that attacks the respiratory system. The flu has three strains, H1N1 strain, H3N2 strain and influenza B strain. The first known case according to UXL Encyclopedia of Diseases and Disorders “The first influenza pandemic that is known to have been global in scale took place in 1850; it started in China and spread across central Asia to Africa and then to Europe where it nearly wiped out the populations of several major cities in southern Italy and Spain”. The number of cases in the U.S. and worldwide is according to www.cdc.gov “There has been 11,965 laboratory-confirmed flu-related hospitalizations.” The number of cases in the US and world wide per year is 3-5 million.

The emergence and evolution of pandemic influenza has been greatly shaped by inter-host and inter-subtype

More people died from the flu than anything else. ´´Influenza viruses spread in tiny droplets caused by coughing and sneezing .´´ This is making it become a worldwide virus. However the people become infected with influenza by touching something that was contaminated with the virus influenza and touching their nose or mouth . Although most strains of influenza are harmless to wealthy individuals , the virus has the ability to mutate into harmful strains which may cause devastating epidemics .

People are dying every second to a variety of reasons, some that could be prevented others where that is not the case. However, experts agree that influenza and influenza related deaths could be significantly prevented if people took the influenza vaccine annually. The influenza virus is a deadly virus that has been killing people since the 1900s; in 1918 the first recorded epidemic of a strain of influenza known as the Spanish flu killed approximately 50 million people ("Pandemic Flu History"). Because people did not know what the virus was or how to fight against it, it spread very fast. However, after the vaccine was made, later epidemics such as the 1957, 1968, and 2009 epidemics were not as fatal, killing approximately one million people worldwide. Vaccines played a large role in human history in fighting and preventing diseases from annihilating human beings. This paper will discuss the economic aspects of whether it should be mandatory for hospital health care workers to take the flu vaccine.

Influenza strikes this country in pandemic proportions every year. Although there are many factors contributing to morbidity and mortality, the mortality rate varies from year to year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the thirty year range from 1976 to 2006, saw death rates from a low of 3000 to a high of 49000 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). So far this season, there have been 3697 deaths from influenza related illness (CDC, 2016). In 2009, the virulent H1N1 strain, with a 20% risk of death, also brought the difficulties of lack of research based clinical evidence for treatments (Cook, et al., 2010). The lack of research conducted during pandemics stems from the delay caused by the often