What Is Influenza?

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.

On August 12, 1918, Mrs. Olsen became the first person to die of influenza, beginning the killing streak that would make influenza the number one killer (Persico 30). It spread like wildfire, with one person falling ill, followed by another, 107 by afternoon, 522 by the end of the week, and 1,127 suffering with 46 dead five weeks later. Nevertheless, these occurred before influenza was discovered, and pneumonia was blamed for deaths (Persico 28).

Influenza, also known as the flu, is a highly contagious viral disease that affects the upper respiratory tract. Flu season typically lasts between the months of October and April. Signs and symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, fatigue, runny nose, and headaches. Individuals that are at a high risk of getting the flu include: children under the age of two, persons 65 and older, pregnant women, and persons with a chronic illness. Environment factors can also increase the risk of contracting the flu. Complications can include pneumonia, ear and sinus infections, dehydration, or worsening of chronic medical conditions. The influenza virus could eventually lead to longer hospitalization or death if left untreated. According to the CDC, the best way to prevent the flu is by getting vaccinated each year. Compliance with the vaccination is also important in preventing the flu.

Influenza is not a deadly virus and does have a vaccination. One of the three types of influenza, type C, “type C infections cause a mild respiratory illness and are not thought to cause epidemics” (Types of Influenza Viruses). The other two types of influenza viruses type“ A and B viruses cause seasonal epidemics” and happen mostly when winter hits (Types of Influenza

The United states faced one of the deadliest epidemics in US history from 1918-1919, killing nearly 675,000 americans. When it first started, it killed nearly half the US soldiers who fought in the war. By August of 1918, Philadelphia and Boston were already infected by influenza. Then by October 1919, influenza had killed nearly 200,000 americans.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2013) national healthcare disparities report for 2010, influenza and pneumonia are ranked within the top ten major causes of death in the United States. The influenza viruses that will be discussed throughout this case study include the human influenza viruses: A and B. These viruses are responsible for seasonal epidemics during the fall and winter around the globe in temperate environments. Historically influenza outbreaks have had a seasonal distribution and characteristic time course although according to the CDC (2017) factors influencing the extent and severity of an outbreak are less clear. Generally, there are two or three different influenza strains typically circulating concurrently in any given

The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It is a true story of the world's deadliest disease. In 1918, the Great Flu Epidemic felled the young and healthy overnight. It was a plague so deadly that if a similar virus were to strike today, it would kill more people in a single year than heart disease, cancers, strokes, chronic pulmonary disease, AIDS and Alzheimer's disease combined.

"The 1918 has gone: a year momentous as the termination of the most cruel war in the annals of the human race; a year which marked, the end at least for a time, of man's destruction of man; unfortunately a year in which developed a most fatal infectious disease causing the death of hundreds of thousands of human beings. Medical science for four and one-half years devoted itself to putting men on the firing line and keeping them there. Now it must turn with its whole might to combating the greatest enemy of all--infectious disease (Billings, 2005)." The influenza in 1919 was much bigger than a cold. In the two years that this disease swept the world one fifth of the population was infected. The flu was most deadly for people ages 20 to 40. This pattern of death was unusual for influenza which usually killed the elderly and young children. It infected 28% of all Americans. An estimated 675,000 Americans died of influenza during this pandemic, about ten times as many as in World War 1. Of the U.S. soldiers who died in Europe, half of them were killed by the influenza virus and not to the enemy. An estimated 43,000 soldiers who were sent for WWI died of influenza. The worldwide influenza epidemic adversely affected the U.S., both in the states and the soldiers at war. Subsequently, in the lack of medicine, lack of skilled doctors, and the lack of soldier preparation.

Influenza, commonly referred to as the seasonal flu, is a respiratory infection caused by a virus. Areas

One of the worst outbreaks occurred in 1918 when World War I was coming to a close, and millions of soldiers were returning home. The virus spread quickly worldwide and reached pandemic proportions (Lamb). The pandemic was due to a new and extremely deadly strain of influenza, the H1N1 avian influenza A virus. It was dubbed the Spanish flu after it killed 8 million in Spain, and was one of the most lethal influenza pandemics in history. The high mortality rate was due to the severity of the symptoms and the extremely contagious nature of the virus (Schulman). It killed 20 million people in a matter of months, and by the time it ran its course, it had killed 50-100 million people worldwide. In the United States, 25 million were infected and 675,000 died. The 1918 flu went away within a year as it mutated into less lethal forms. Most people today have some degree of immunity to the H1N1 virus, inherited from those who survived the pandemic

The influenza or flu pandemic of 1918 to 1919, the deadliest in modern history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide–about one-third of the planet’s population at the time–and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims. Researchers later discovered what made

There are there types of influenza A and C or the most severe types and B which is the most common, Luckily not the to severe. The virus works by first attaching to the outside of a host cell. It injects its RNA into the cell. Unfortunately our cells treat the RNA like they should. It translates the viral genes using the cell’s ribosomes and enzymes. Now the virus can take the cell over and use it to reproduce more viruses. Sooner or later it releases the new nauseating viruses and they search for another cell to raid.

The first wave began in the spring of 1918; for the most part, America's public health system ignored it. Generally, public health departments did not receive reports of influenza. Most doctors cited pneumonia on the death certificates of those killed, since flu came first and weakened the resistance of the sick, then pneumonia followed and was the eventual cause of death for most people.

The 1918 pandemic was known as the “Spanish Flu” and was Influenza strain A(H1N1) and it caused the highest known influenza death rate known, 500,000 Americans and 20 million people worldwide.

v. Occurs most often in farmers close to live stock. Virus arise in pigs that become simultaneously infected with both avian and human viruses.