Influenza Research Papers

Influenza, probably best known as "the flu”, is an infectious respiratory disease. Although the disease is often mild, it can also be life-threatening and causes serious infection and death each year, usually in the winter months. 250,000-500,000 deaths annually occur due to influenza viruses1–3. Particularly elderly people, people with a weakened immune system and people with pre-existing respiratory, cardiac and endocrine diseases are affected by complications3. Due to some pre-existing immunity against seasonal influenza strains, most people only have a self-limiting illness of a few days to weeks4. Typical symptoms of influenza-infected people are chills, coughing, sneezing, body aches, fever, fatigue, headache, which all are very similar to a common cold but much more severe with the flu. Influenza is transmitted either via direct contact (with infected individuals), contact with contaminated objects (e.g. doorknobs) or inhalation of virus-laden aerosols2,3. …show more content…
There are three types of human influenza viruses: influenza virus A (IVA), influenza virus B and influenza virus C2,5. Type A virus is the most virulent of the three and causes the most serious disease. In addition to humans, it also infects animals such as birds, pigs, horses and bats6. Until now, only the type A virus has been known to cause pandemics due to the risk of zoonotic infections caused by host switch2,7. The type B virus infects almost exclusively humans8, but also seals9 and ferrets10 can be infected. Due to the limited host spectrum and less antigenic change, no pandemics are caused by this type11. Type C virus infects humans, pigs and dogs. It is less common than the other two types, and causes mostly only mild respiratory