Swine flu incidences have decreased. There are now isolated cases, compared to the fall of 2009.…
To the general population, science seems like a field that consists of facts and certainty. However, this could not be further from the truth. The life’s work of a scientist can be taken away in an instant. In a passage from “The Great Influenza,” John M. Barry expresses that the success of a scientist depends on their capacity to handle challenges. Using ethos, extended metaphor, and rhetorical questions, Barry characterizes science as a path of uncertainty.…
In 2011, the blockbuster, Contagion, was released, featuring several prominent actors. In summary, the movie is the story of a father who loses his wife and son to a completely brand new virus. This new virus, dubbed MEV-1, originated from a bat in Hong Kong. The bat bit a fruit then dropped it into a pigpen infecting the pig that consumed the fruit with the bat’s virus. While pig was prepped to be cooked, the chef touched the pig’s mouth, getting virus on his hand and shakes the hands of woman, Beth, making her patient zero for MEV-1. The disease then spread to others who come in contact with Beth or Beth’s belongings. After the CDC realized the existence of this virus, they promptly started researching it. After several days of research, scientists were able to determine that the virus was “15 to 19 kilobases in length and containing six to ten genes, typical of a paramyxovirus” containing genes from bats and pigs, which attach to receptors found on cells in the respiratory and the central nervous system. The virus is seemingly able to be contracted through the respiratory tract, but kills the host by making its way to the brain and causing encephalitis. The vaccine for the virus was developed by first growing the virus in fetal bat cells in culture, propagating and isolating, and finally inoculating rhesus monkeys with attenuated and dead forms of the virus. Out of desperation for working vaccine, after observing one monkey surviving during the vaccination trials, one of the researchers injected herself with the tested vaccine given to the surviving chimp. By doing so, she skipped the entire clinical trials portion of developing vaccines and had the vaccine fastracked to be mass-produced.…
Taubenberger suspects that the Spanish Flu came about from a bird flu, pig flu, and human flu all getting mixed together somehow, but could not tell from his sample what makes the flu so deadly. He agreed to join Duncan’s team in hopes of making sense of the Spanish Flu. Every winter, the Food and Drug Administration make sure we are prepared if such a strain of the flu ever reappears. With guidance of the government, they find the kinds of flu strands to put in the upcoming flu shot. Whenever a flu strand produces a new offspring, scientists say the virus has “drifted”; this drifting is what makes the flu so dangerous, and also makes it impossible to use the same vaccination. We are relying on a certain surveillance process to protect us if the Spanish Flu ever reappeared, and if certain flu strands don’t fall into specific “families” it would sound an alarm. On May 10th, 1997, a boy in Hong Kong was infected with a pure avian flu that had never been seen in humans before, possibly caused by direct contact with infected…
The main change in the treatment of Influenza over time was the development of the Flu vaccine, which reduces the risk of the pathogen infecting you by 50% - 60%. This and the develop of Adamantamine which was the first antiviral drug to have a potent enough effect against any virus. These new technologies were made possible by the ability that technology has given scientists to share their research. The idea of the flu vaccine only came about because of the development of vaccines of other diseases. This new technology would have given Jonas Salk and Thomas Francis the help they needed to invent the flu vaccine.…
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention was called on to research a case of the swine flu.…
Swine flu incidences have decreased. There are now isolated cases, compared to the fall of 2009.…
Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill juvenile, elderly, or already weakened patients; in contrast the 1918 pandemic predominantly killed previously healthy young adults. Modern research, using virus taken from the bodies of frozen victims, has concluded that the virus kills through a cytokine storm . The strong immune reactions of young adults ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults resulted in fewer deaths among those groups.…
She also points out that everything is always better to overprepare than to underprepare. Molloy appears to have overlooked that the powerful of virus can be. In fact, there are a couple of factors like infectivity, severity and lethality which can all affect the strength of a virus. Transmission is also a key factor to determine how the virus spread and be identified. As Molloy mentions that the death rate for H1N1 is relatively low than for ordinary pandemic, it does not mean that H1N1 is a weak influenza.…
The Doomsday Paper - Biology How is a 21st century influenza epidemic connected to the 14th century Black Death pandemic? Connie Willis, in her fictional Doomsday Book, takes the reader on a journey through time, examining the devastating effects of these two diseases. Hapless Kivrin, the story’s heroin, contracts influenza in the 21st century as she prepares to travel back in time to the 14th century on a research expedition. She is accidentally sent back to the wrong decade by an influenza infected time technician and encounters the plague in 1348. Willis provides impressive contrast between modern scientific approaches to diagnosing and battling influenza and Kivrin’s ill-equipped efforts at disease control and caring for the dying victims…
American Lung Association. (2014, Jan 1). Indoor Air Quality. Retrieved Feb 18, 2014, from www.lung.org:…
Everyone knows over the past 15 years, technology and media have been increasing rapidly. The negative impact that brings is falsely stated “facts” are put out there on the news and people get the wrong perception of what the flu vaccine really does for people, and that the flu virus is very deadly. “Concerns about side effects constitutes a major deterrent to patient compliance with influenza vaccination” contended the Journal of the American Medical Association (Frequency of Adverse Reactions to Influenza Vaccine in the Elderly, 2014). The flu itself is not that serious, in most cases the flu passes without even knowing this. Each year there is a new flu strain, the NSAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), develop new vaccines for seasonal flu viruses. Also, animal strains are taken for the fact that they can become a pandemic. How the flu vaccine is started is with chicken eggs, they are injected into the egg, left to grow before being harvested as a flu vaccine. The flu virus symptoms consist of fever, hot/cold sweats, vomiting, loss of appetite, and much more. The few normal symptoms of the flu are…
There is a way to get infected with the flu it is from an animal when they cough then the mucus spreads through the air and gestures into people’s lungs. “Influenza can be cured with rest and fluids but there is the flu shot or specific medications for certain symptoms … “ ( “Center of Disease Control”).…
Do you remember when you went to the doctor to get your vaccines? The contents within that big pointy needle is just what your body needs to fight off infections such as influenza, or better known as the flu. Influenza is an infection that affects your respiratory systems such as your throat, nose, and lungs. This infection could cause a mild to severe illness that could kill you. So it is very important to get your flu shots every year. Every year there is always a new flu shot, so which year was the flu shot most effective? Influenza is a very complicated disease that breaks down to many levels and its hard to tell whether the vaccine given to you will be effective or not. With new technology we are able to track them and I believe that the most recent recorded flu shot will be more effective than past shots, because we are becoming more advanced in science and in medicine that better cures are being invented.…
According to MedicineNet, the first outbreak of swine flu in humans was in 1976 at Fort Dix. During the outbreak in 1976, only one human died because of the swine flu disease. The swine flu was sought to travel among the compounds of one area and just disappeared thereafter (MedicineNet, 1996-2011). Another brief outbreak in 1988 occurred in a 32-year-old pregnant woman. The pregnant women was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia and then died several days later. After the woman’s death, a swine flu trait was detected throughout the testing and diagnostics and information arise pertaining to the woman attending a fair with infected swine. The next major outbreak of the swine flu, which became a pandemic, occurred in 2009 (MedicineNet, 1996-2011).…