Influenza Virus

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.

Everywhere you look you see ads on the tv, at the store, on the highway, even in school you will sometimes see some sort of advertising one ad you will see more frequently during flu season are ads put out by the center for disease control but what makes an add effective to a certain audience? In America alone an average of between 5 and 20 percent of americans will be infected with the influenza virus per year. The CDC has been effectively running their flu vaccination for many years now but the question is what makes these adds effective or ineffective? The three adds benefits of vaccination, quiz add, and travel ad each have a certain techniques they use to promote vaccination.

Influenza, an innocent little virus that annually comes and goes, has always been a part of people’s lives. Knowing this, one would not believe that it has caused not one, not two, but three pandemics and is on its way to causing a fourth! The Spanish flu of 1918, the Asian flu of 1957, and the Hong Kong

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.

Avian influenza is a disease that has been wreaking havoc on human populations since the 16th century. With the recent outbreak in 1997 of a new H5N1 avian flu subtype, the world has begun preparing for a pandemic by looking upon its past affects. In the 20th Century, the world witnessed three pandemics in the years of 1918, 1957, and 1968. In 1918 no vaccine, antibiotic, or clear recognition of the disease was known. Killing over 40 million in less than a year, the H1N1 strain ingrained a deep and lasting fear of the virus throughout the world. Though 1957 and 1968 brought on milder pandemics, they still killed an estimated 3 million people and presented a new

Once there was a virus named Birdie. This virus was a Bird Flu, or Avian Influenza, virus of the subtype H5N1, the first strain of Avian Influenza having the ability to infect humans (Normandin and Solan). Birdie looked like a microscopic pomander, a fragrant orange with cloves stuck in it. Inside, she had eight pieces of single stranded ribonucleic acid or ssRNA. Birdie was deadly to humans, but was not able to spread from one human to another. She could only spread from birds to humans ("Bird Flu"). Birdie started out inside a chicken named Cluck, where she was formed. A little while later, Cluck's farmer Mark, sold his Cluck, to Joe, another poultry farmer because Mark did not realize that Cluck had H5N1. After a few months of Cluck living

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 is still being discussed. In the public health sector it is used as an example of the viruses potential power, if we do not continue to prepare, educate the public and vaccinate on a global scale. Let’s think back to that time were science and technology was not as advanced. Quarantine and isolation measures meant little to no travel, remaining home and less time spent in the public, “diagnosing influenza became even more difficult because an especially virulent form of the disease had erupted” (Untied States Department of Health and Human Services, 2015).

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.

Many now ignore the fact diseases can still affect us, even though currently since so many people travel it causes us to be more susceptible than ever. Countries trade now more than ever, causing the chance for diseases to spread faster than ever. Since an epidemic might be around the next bend, we need to start putting a plan into place so we can be ready when the next epidemic comes.A big worry of Tyler Kokjohn and Cooper Kimbal, the next epidemic will again be just like that common flu that we experience every year. The worry is that the response time will not be quick enough because people will just suspect that it is the yearly flu. A part that goes into saving lives is how health organizations respond, in order to prevent deaths they need to respond both quickly and effectively to information that they receive about possible small outbreaks of the disease (Kokjohn). Professionals have concerns regarding slow response times to epidemic outbreaks. Kokjohn says, “Unfortunately, influenza surveillance is an especially weak link in the chain of public-health protection. Exactly where, when, and (most important) how quickly and reliably the emergence of a new flu virus with pandemic potential is recognized will determine whether a vaccine can be produced before the virus spreads across the world. People and products now traverse the planet with ease, meaning that a future flu pandemic may engulf the world with

Around 5 million people worldwide are affected annually by the influenza A virus (IAV), with infection resulting in severe morbidity and sometimes death. Although effective IAV vaccines exist, annual influenza epidemics occur due to its ability to quickly evolve new strains. Therefore, IAV remains a serious public health threat as evidenced by the recent pandemics involving swine H1N1 and avian H7N9. Thus, there is a vital need to develop more effective vaccines against influenza. Normally, vaccines function by priming the immune system to recognize a pathogen so that the body can more easily identify and eliminate it upon a second encounter. This protective immunity relies on receptors in the innate immune system such as the pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and retinoic acid inducible gene I (RIG-I). In contrast, Nod-like receptors (NLRs) sense cellular damage as a result of infection and engage the inflammasome. Inflammasomes are multiprotein complexes that stimulate the secretion of inflammatory cytokines. Recent work by Pang et al. examined the relevance of host recognition of viral PAMPs versus virus-inflicted damage in linking innate recognition of IAV to adaptive immunity. Mediation of adaptive immunity to IAV is attributed to production of interleukin-1α (IL-1α) and IL-1β, cleavage products of the inflammatory cytokine IL-1. Pang et al. provided evidence that induction of an adaptive CD8+ T cell response did not depend on PRRs

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 .

Health Topic: Influenza The disease and which part of the body it affects: Influenza (flu) can affect your whole body. It can affect your eyes with aches behind your eye ball. It can also be felt through the whole body with aches especially in your head lower back and legs, making you feel extremely tired and weak Common symptoms: As well as body aches you can also get symptoms from influenza that include a sudden appearance of a high temperature. The high temperature can give you a dry cough. Then your body starts to ache and you can start to feel weak or really tired. This is when your eyes start to ache and you get the chills from the fever. During these symptoms you may lose your appetite and you can get a runny or stuffy nose as well as

Influenza virus has caused serious respiratory illness and death over the past centuries. Epidemics and pandemics due to Influenza virus were known to cause morbidity and mortality in humans and other animals. Pandemics have been documented since the 16th century (WHO, 2005) and in the last 400 years, at least 31 pandemics have been recorded (Lazzari and Stohr, 2004). Influenza virus belongs to the family Orthomyxoviridae, which is characterized by a segmented, minus-stranded RNA genome. Influenza viruses are irregular, spherical (80-120 nm diameter) or filamentous structures and their surfaces are studded with rod-shaped hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) spikes (Betts, 1995). Influenza viruses are of three types A, B, and C. The typing

Avian influenza results from infection by viruses belonging to the species influenza A virus, genus influenza virus A and family Orthomyxoviridae. These viruses are also called type A influenza viruses. Influenza A viruses are further classified into subtypes based on two surface proteins, the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) (Tong et al, 2013). The viruses are roughly spherical (120 nM) with glycoprotein spikes on the surface and genome consisting of also eight RNA fragments that encode 10 proteins. The haemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA) and matrix (M2) proteins are embedded in the envelope lipid bilayer derived from the host cell (Lamb and Krug, 2001) (figure1). The M1 protein underlying the envelope is the major determinant

Influenza virus infection (IVI) is one of global health issues which causes excessive lung inflammation in both upper and lower respiratory tract. Seasonal IVI causes significant morbidity and mortality to infants, elderly and immunocompromised people despite of annual vaccination. IVI also increases the susceptibility to secondary bacterial co-infection, lung injury, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Current therapeutic strategies of IVI are focusing on inhibition of viral replication, membrane fusion and viral gene expression. Despite of several decades' efforts, there was no breakthrough in IVI therapeutics and therapeutic strategies. Therefore, novel approaches are in necessary to discover new IVI therapeutic candidates.