The avian flu better known as the bird flu now just because flu that may have an animal name does not necessarily come from an animal the flu genes are as similar to animals. Apparently the bird flu mostly affected birds, chickens and wild birds. The first bird flu to infect a person had been in Hong Kong in the year 1997. Ever since the bird flu infection it has spread from Hong Kong to different places around the world such as Europe, Asia and even the Middle East with birds not with people.
When the bird flu first evolved it was mainly through birds and with time it spread through more birds around the world. In my opinion I find it rare how it is possible for an animal to infect a human, I would think that the only way for a person to get infected by an animal would to be rabies. With this flu and other viruses that come from animals, the virus in birds or animals can change and can mutate. If this were to happen the world would become an outburst of illness.
The way for one human to become very ill and get the bird flu is by eating eggs that are not co...
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...
A few years before 1918, in the height of the First World War, a calamity occurred that stripped the globe of at least 50 million lives. (Taubenberger, 1918) This calamity was not the death toll of the war; albeit, some individuals may argue the globalization associated with the First World War perpetuated the persistence of this calamity. This calamity was referred to the Spanish Flu of 1918, but calling this devastating pestilence the “Spanish Flu” may be a historical inaccuracy, as research and historians suggest that the likelihood of this disease originating in Spain seams greatly improbable. Despite it’s misnomer, the Spanish Flu, or its virus name H1N1, still swept across the globe passing from human to human by exhaled drops of water that contained a deadly strand of RNA wrapped with a protein casing. Individuals who were unfortunate enough to come in contact with the contents of the protein casing generally developed severe respiratory inflammation, as the Immune system’s own response towards the infected lung cells would destroy much of the lungs, thus causing the lungs to flood with fluids. Due to this flooding, pneumonia was a common cause of death for those infected with Spanish Flu. Due its genetic similarity with Avian Flu, the Spanish Flu is thought to be descended from Avian Flu which is commonly known as “Bird Flu.” (Billings,1997) The Spanish Flu of 1918 has had a larger impact in terms of global significance than any other disease has had because it was the most deadly, easily transmitted across the entire globe, and occurred in an ideal time period for a disease to happen.
The epidemic began at around the end of the first World War and was the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. Some symptoms of the influenza included muscle pains, sore throat, headache, fever, glandular disturbances, eye aberrations, heart action slowing, and depression of all bodily functions and reactions. The flu is highly contagious and spreads around easily whenever an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks. This global disaster was nicknamed the “Spanish Flu,” or “La Grippe.” The nickname of the Spanish Flu came from one of the earliest countries to be hit hard by influenza; eight million people in Spain were killed in the May of 1918. There were also other nicknames for the epidemic. The French called it “purulent bronchitis,” the Italians named it “sandfly fever,” and the Germans labeled it “Blitz Katarrh.” The Influenza Epidemic of 1918, a virus that spread throughout the globe, affected the world in many ways and had many devastating after effects.
In 1918 to 1919 a flu pandemic broke out known as the Spanish flu. A majority of the people who caught this illness passed on quickly. Others passed on from complications caused by bacteria. An estimated twenty to forty percent of the world’s population contracted the illness.
From the time of its first recorded incident in 412 BC (Adams 1) to 1918, influenza was never taken seriously. With symptoms similar to the common cold, most people disregarded influenza as a minor illness, nothing more. As Lynette Iezzoni quoted in her book, Influenza 1918, influenza was thought to be “quite a Godsend! Everybody ill, nobody dying” besides the very old and feeble (16). However, the influenza virus was out to prove them wrong in the influenza pandemic of 1918.
Emergence of a disease such as bird flu calls for concern for public health officials because, migrating flocks of wild birds which cover vast geographical areas could spread the virus to domestic poultry. Humans who come in contact with domestic birds are at risk of contracting the virus and domestic poultry are major source of protein.
The disease gets its name not from the country where it first appeared but from the country where it was first widely reported. The Spanish were not involved in World War One. They were not censoring their newsprint as heavily as those in countries involved in the war. When Spain was hit hard by the disease it became associated with the “Spanish flu”. The Spanish king himself contracted the flu. (History 2013) There are conflicting reports about where the disease originated. One commonly held belief is that it originated in a military camp in Kansas where soldiers were trained before being sent around the world to fight. The second wave commenced in three port cities in three countries; this second wave was a deadly evolution of the first wave and began the deadly phase of the pandemic. (The Great Pandemic)
The Ebola Haemorrahagic Fever, or Ebola for short, was first recognized as a virus in 1967. The first breakout that caused the Ebola virus to be recognized was in Zaire with 318 people infected and 280 killed. There are five subtypes of the Ebola virus, but only four of them affect humans. There are the Ebola-Zaire, Ebola-Sudan, Ebola-Ivory Coast and the Ebola-Bundibugyo. The fifth one, the Ebola-Reston, only affects nonhuman primates. The Ebola-Zaire was recognized on August 26, 1976 with a 44 year old schoolteacher as the first reported case. The Ebola-Sudan virus was also recognized in 1976 and was thought to be that same as Ebola-Zaire and it is thought to have broken out in a cotton factory in the Sudan. The Ebola-Ivory Coast was first discovered in 1994 in chimpanzees in the Tia Forest in Africa. On November 24, 2007, the Ebola-Bundibugyo branch was discovered with an approximate total of 116 people infected in the first outbreak and 39 deaths. The Ebola-Reston is the only one of the five subtypes to not affect humans, only nonhuman primates. It first broke out in Reston, Virginia in 1989 among crab eating macaques.
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.
Hvistendahl, M, Cohen, J et. al. 2013. ‘New Flu Virus in China Worries and Confuses’ Science 340: 129-130
Influenza Pandemic has no way of telling where it originated; some people say it was originated in Europe. Spanish Influenza was brought back to the USA and to other countries around the world. It’s likely that soldiers being brought back to America brought the virus with them when they left France.
The “Aussie flu”, an Australian influenza virus, has made headlines on media worldwide. It is suggested that the Australian strain has spread to other countries, which has led to criticism of Australia’s Public Health policies. Although, is it possible to identify a strain’s source? If so, how did this “Aussie flu” become so harmful, could it have been prevented? The media is comparing this year’s flu outbreak to the 1968 Hong Kong flu, is it really the next flu pandemic? Influenza viruses are ever evolving and resisting to antibiotic treatment. This is a Global Health issue, particularly making an impact in Australia.
The Flu was first founded in Seattle September, 1918. The avian flu can also be known as the “Bird Flu”. The bird flu is being passed around by migratory birds. It can be transmitted from birds to mammals and in some limited circumstances to humans. The flu will also be known as the H5N1 virus. The H5N1 virus has raised concerns about a potential human pandemic because its virulent (deadly; extremely dangerous) and it can evolve like other influenza viruses. As many other viruses and illnesses the flu can be a lot more deadlier. When you get the flu the lungs are severely harmed from infected cells called macrophages and T-cells. The virus can spread way beyond the lungs but generally do not. Many people catch the flu and think they have the common cold because of some of the same symptoms. But actually the flu can be more dangerous if you don’t treat it immediately.
This disease was first diagnosed in 1918 and it was referred to as the “Spanish Flu” or “La Grippe.” To this day it is thought to of been the same strain as the swine influenza however it is still unclear. For this particular outbreak it’s not exactly know whether humans contracted the virus from pigs or vice versa. Either way between 20-40 million people died from it. The first confirmed case of H1N1 in the U.S. was diagnosed on April 15th, 2009. The CDC quickly began developing a vaccine due to the fact that it was declared a public health emergency about a week later by the government. It tu...
In 1918-19 approximately 50 million deaths were a detriment of the Spanish H1N1 virus pandemic; a respiratory virus. According to the World Health Organization, the second Influenza A H1N1 pandemic in 2009 spread to more than 200 countries causing more than 18 000 deaths. Before the World Health Organization had announced the official end of the pandemic in August 2010, in July 2009 the World Health Organization sent out a phase 6 warning that H1N1 could soon be a global pandemic. It is important to recognize that the 2 different outbreaks had different A/H1N1strains effecting the world population; this suggests A/H1N1has a high ability for mutation, severely complicating the human body’s natural immune mechanism of antigenic drift. (Qi-Shi Du et al., 2010)