INFLUENZA
Introduction
One can claim that influenza is an infection that has victimized people from just about every generation that we have known. The term Influenza comes from the Latin word "influentia", first used by the Italians in the 1600's. It is a highly contagious infection particulary of the respiratory tract.In addition to us humans, influenza can occur in pigs, horses, and several other mammals as well as in certain wild and birds. It can also jump from specie to specie as observed in late 1997 when influenza from chickens was having its effects on people in Hong Kong. Because influenza is highly contagious and spreads easily, it has appeared in our history many a times as epidemics. Influenza is caused by an
…show more content…
Hemagglutinin is very important for the virus to bind to animal cells, for example, a human red blood cell. This causes agglutination which is the clumping of the red blood cells. Tests based on this simple clumping of the red blood cells is useful to determine if one has influenza. The neuraminidase is used to cut off the viruses hemagglutinin receptors when new viruses are produced and start budding off. It also degrades the mucosal surfaces of the lungs and the throat to prevent being ejected. This hampers the ability of the antibodies of getting into the lungs.
Spreading & Multiplication
As soon as the virus is in the body, it uses the hemagglutinin to bind to the cell surface. The membranes of the virus and the cell fuse togather and the capsid that contains the single stranded RNA is released into the cytoplasm. The protein coat of the virus dissassembles and then starts making viral proteins and viral RNA copies. The new virus proteins are put togather near the cell membrane and then bud off from the membrance. Influenza has a rapid onset and pronounced symptoms. After the influenza virus invades a person’s body, an incubation period of one to two days passes before symptoms appear. For most people flu symptoms begin to subside after two to three days and disappear in seven to ten days. However, symptoms like coughing and fatigue may persist for two
The influenza virus is “an acute respiratory tract illness, with outbreaks occuring annually that are responsible for large numbers of hospitalization and death worldwide” (Dool et al. 314-319). The influenza virus has a few common symptoms that
7 Influenza transmit through respiratory droplet from an infect individual. When we come into contact with infections, our symptoms can be caused by two sources: the particular pathogen we are victim to and our immune response against the pathogen. The specific pathogens that enter our bodies can directly cause damage to our tissues and organs; certain pathogens can even affect various parts of our body, causing systemic infections. Systemic infections are caused by our own immune response, designed to destroy the pathogen, such as cytotoxic T-cells action cause Cell death in respiratory track. Our immune system reacts to the presence of the pathogen, and inflammatory response that causes collateral damage to our own tissues while
Influenza (the flu), is an infectious disease caused by the influenza virus. The symptoms of influenza range from mild to severe and usually start 2 days after exposure to virus, the most common symptoms are high fever, sore throat, runny nose, muscle pains, headache, coughing, and feeling tired.
The influenza virus was discovered through studying animal diseases. In 1918 a veterinarian named J.S. Koen observed a disease in pigs which was believed to be the same disease as the “Spanish” influenza. In 1928, McBryde attempted to transmit influenza from one pig to another by taking mucus from the respiratory tract of sick pigs and putting it into the noses of healthy pigs. His effort failed to transmit the virus because they used only filtered material. Most types of bacterial filters used during that time could not allow the flow of viral particles through them. During the same year, Robert Shope, who worked at the Rockefeller Institute for Comparative Pathology in Princeton, New Jersey, repeated the same experiments using unfiltered material. Shope was not only able to reproduce the disease, but more importantly, he went on to demonstrate that pigs can also become ill when filtered fluid was used. The disease produced was mild and
Influenza is contracted through respiratory secretions that contain virus of infected individuals. The viral respiratory secretions are transmitted by droplets when a person sneezes, coughs, or speaks.mThe virus is present in respiratory secretions up to 24 hours and detectable before the patient experiencing symptoms. The virus penetrates the cells and begins replication when it reaches
Influenza is a life threatening illness caused by influenza virus. It is a contagious disease of the respiratory tract causes serious infections and death around the globe usually in winter season. There are three types of influenza viruses infect humans, type A, B and C. Influenza A and B cause severe disease and major outbreaks and can be prevented through influenza vaccination. Influenza C causes common cold like illness among children. Influenza A is responsible for influenza pandemics. Influenza A and B viruses have two main proteins on the outside of virus, the haemaglutinin (H) and the neuraminidase (N) proteins and are referred as antigens as they are the structures to which our immune system responds. New strains of influenza A and B continually form because the H and N antigens change.
Influenza pandemics are caused by type A virus. Influenza A viruses have two specific antigens Hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) on their surfaces. Various influenza strains are identified by the combination of their HA and NA antigens. HA protein antigens allow
Another way to contract influenza is through fomite (an inanimate object that can carry infectious disease). This is another reason why influenza is so deadly. It’s difficult to tell whether a surface contain the droplet of those infected by the virus and it’s extremely easy to create these surfaces whether by accident or on purpose. People can also spread the flu virus before showing any actual symptoms relating to the flu. Once the influenza virus enters the system, it attaches to the epithelial cells in the bronchi and trachea. The virus then goes into the lytic cycle and the end result being the destruction of the host’s cells. Symptoms of the flu includes sore throat, fever, heavy coughing, and headache. Most people often recover from the flu within one or two weeks but being affected by the flu can also lead to some fatal complications. One of the most prominent complications from the flu is pneumonia (liquid in the lung). This most often affect children and the elderly. People with ongoing diseases are also heavily affected by the flu since it weaken their immune system allowing whatever ailment to achieve maximum lethality. The flu virus weaken the immune system by forcing both antibody and cellular responses to attach to hemagglutinin and neuraminidase in an attempt to neutralize them. Since they both can evolve so rapidly, the task of completely neutralization can
Symptoms of Influenza, are similar to any cold, but on a much larger scale. Symptoms include having fever/chills, cough, sore throat, runny or blocked nose, muscle aches, watery eyes, fatigue and diarrhea, (which is more common in younger children.) People who have influenza can have these symptoms for up to two weeks, and then feel back to normal, but people who have a weak immune system can develop more serious illnesses such as pneumonia and bronchitis.
Structure: The influenza virus looks like a sphere covered with spike like proteins for grip ready to latch on to a healthy human cell. “The H spike (hem agglutinin) and the N spike (neuraminidase) are called proteins and exist in the envelope and they are used for antigenic typing” (Pearson 2004). These proteins allow the virus to enter and exit the host (our cells). Once the virus is inside the cell, the virus can begin reproducing. Soon, each infected cell is filled with thousands of new viruses, each of them looking to leave the cell to find a new home in another cell and begin reproducing there.
Influenza (flu) is an acute, contagious and fast-spreading respiratory infection caused by the influenza virus. Virus spread through the contact between persons, contact with contaminated items or the droplets in the air. Typical symptoms are high fever, chills, body aches, significant fatigue and mild respiratory infection. There is a high incidence of infection in autumn and winter, complications and mortality are very serious. This influenza viral disease can be classified into three types, A, B and C which cause the annual influenza epidemics that have up to 20% of the population sniffling, aching, coughing, and running high fevers. This disease is self-limiting, but serious complications such as pneumonia in infants, children, elderly
Hello Sherri, influenza was one of my clinical diagnoses based on the patient’s clinical symptoms of fever, fatigue and body ache. Influenza is an acute viral respiratory illness that impact the health of many individuals, families, and communities. Influenza viruses belong to the Orthomyxoviridae family and are enveloped, segmented, single-strand RNA viruses. They can be divided into three types, A, B, C and are varied by viral RNA segments. Types A and B are common and are more likely to cause severe symptoms and epidemics. Seasonal influenza results from circulating influenza A and B viruses. Influenza viruses enter human hosts through columnar epithelial cells of the trachea, bronchi and bronchioles through influenza hemagglutinin, which
With this being a mutation of the influenza virus it has an envelope this makes it easier for the virus to infect the cell. It does attaches its envelope to the cell to makes the cell think that is part of it so it lets the virus in. The virus is then disassembled the RNA (ribonucleic acid) becomes available for transcription. The host cell then takes the RNA and uses it for transcription making it TRNA (Transcription ribonucleic acid). Which the nucleus then uses to manufacture the virus proteins and viral RNA and other proteins for binding the outer layer of the cell to the virus. This then lets the virus have an envelope the cell manufacters so many viruses that essentially the cell explodes shooting the virus into nearby cells to restart the process. this would cause a virulence issue as the virulence would be around 65% cell death if infected as some cells would explode, others would slowly seep the virus out of
There is an outbreak that occurred in the United States. Many local hospitals have reported a lot of patients becoming ill with high fevers , congestion , and difficulty breathing. The thing that each of the hospitalized patients had in common is that they had come into recent contact with some of the local farmers. After receiving several reports the CDC have investigators at local hospital's assessing the extent of the illness. The US Dept. of Agriculture have made a visit to a farm for an inspection in regards to multiple people and pets becoming ill. The inspector notices signs and symptoms in some of the pigs that are coughing (barking), runny nose, congestion, breathing difficulties, high fevers, nasal discharge, and a loss of appetite.
The characteristics of it are that it is small, microscopic, and has a sphere like form with spikes surrounding the outside covering. It has a lipid envelope. The diameter of it is approximately 80-120 nanometers. Only about 80% of the spikes are hemagglutinin, a protein that functions as an attachment to the host cell. The other 20% of the spikes contains neuraminidase, is involved in the releasing of the newly produced virus from the host cell. On the inner side of the envelope there is an antigenic matrix protein lining. Inside of it contains the genome influenza; it is organized into 8 pieces of single RNA strands. Sometimes there are also mutations that can occur when reproducing. The top 2 types of mutations that