Spanish Influenza Pandemic: Article Analysis

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The article I have chosen discusses the Spanish influenza Pandemic that occurred in 1918. This pandemic had a detrimental effect on not just a continent, but the entire world. This virus killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people and even the healthiest people were infected. The Spanish Influenza is said to have the highest death rate of the strains. The life expectancy in the United States dropped ten years during this time, due to the rising death rate in healthy young adults brought on by the Pandemic. Unlike the H1N1, the Spanish influenza has the ability to replicate

with the absence of trypsin. A series of tests were conducted to determine the virulence of this virus.

The research done in this article was retrieved by Genomic RNA.
…show more content…
These individuals suffered from many acute symptoms, but nothing life threatening. After injecting the mice with the Spanish Influenza the mice showed severe symptoms. The neutrophils in become very inflamed. The absence of protease trypsin is what makes this strain so different from the others and is a key in determining the pathology. HA and NA in the gene sequence of the spanish influenza were found to be closely mediated making the cleavability of the sequence link to the replication of trypsin. Unlike the virulence of this virus, the pathology was much less severe.

It is easy to ignore a possible Pandemic, but it is likely to happen eventually. By determining the virulence of the 1918 Spanish Influenza researchers are now able to better understand other strains of this virus. Testing the different strains of the Spanish Influenza on mice showed how the pathogenicity is different than any other type of influenza. The formation of the coding sequence helps to explain why this virus is so lethal. THe U.S. Food and Drug Administration was able to find antiviral drugs to stop viruses that have some of the same strains as the 1918 Spanish

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