Influenza Research Paper

Influenza

Influenza, also known as the flu, is a common viral infection of the respiratory passage causing fever, and severe aching. It often occurs in epidemics. It can happen to anyone of any age, race, or sex. It affects most people during the winter. It is usually spread from person to person by them coughing, or sneezing on each other. However, sometimes it can be spread by people touching something that was recently contaminated with the virus and the touching their mouth or nose. Some of the symptoms are fever, aching muscles, headache, persistent cough, fatigue and weakness, nasal congestion, and sore throat.

The first outbreak of influenza was in the summer of 1580 in Northern Africa, Italian accounts think that it spread from Malta to Sicily in July 1580 but it was not till 1918 that influenza was discovered. Influenza was discovered by J.S. Koen in Bloomington Illinois. Koen was a veterinarian who was researching a disease in pigs. He believed it was the same disease as the “Spanish Flu”. There has been pandemic reports for at least 500 years but, nobody quite knew what it was till about 90 years ago. In 1931, Rockefeller investigator, Richard Shope, published the first landmark papers on “swine influenza” the disease of pigs that had first been noted during the fall of a wave of the 1918 influenza pandemic.

The influenza pandemic of 1918, was also known as the Spanish flu.

It killed millions of people, the virus was mostly common in people between the ages of 20 and 40. It is uncertain where the first wave of the influenza outbreak started in 1918. Most evidence indicates that it appeared in the United States, but it attracted little attention because there were very few deaths. The next outbreak spread across North America, disrupting the operation of some military camps and a few factories. It was spread all over the continent in the spring and summer. In Switzerland alone during the month of July, 53,000 people succumbed to the Spanish

Flu.
In 1933, the researchers discovered that viruses cause influenza. Prior to 1933, a bacterium called Haemophilus was thought to cure the flu. In 1938, Jonas Salk and Thomas Francis developed the first vaccination against influenza viruses. The first vaccination was used to protect the U.S. military forces against the flu during World War II.
Epidemics of the seasonal influenza are a major public health concern. It causes tens of millions respiratory illnesses and between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths worldwide each year.
There are many types of influenza. Type A, B, and C. A and B are the most common types of the influenza viruses. They cause the annual flu. Type A is found in humans and animals. It is most found in wild birds. The most common flu hot spots are those surfaces that an infected person has touched and rooms where he has been recently, especially areas where he has been sneezing. Type B is only found in humans. It causes less severe reaction than type A. Occasionally it can type B can still be extremely harmful. Type B does not cause pandemics. Type C is found in humans, It is milder than both A and B. It does not cause epidemics.