Influenza and its Threat to Mankind

The Seasonal Flu

Despite vaccines and advances in medicine, every year
300 million to 1 billion people world-wide get sick from
the flu; that's between 5 and 15% of the human
population.

Some years are worse than others but the seasonal flu
causes between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths each year.

The U.S. is not immune from influenza. The Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) estimates that each year 41,400
Americans die from the seasonal flu.

The Seasonal Flu

Vaccines protect people from getting sick but they don't
kill the viruses which can continue to live in various
animal populations.

Animals harbouring the influenza virus such as wild
birds, pigs and chickens can have few symptoms or they
are not sick at all, making it difficult to detect.

The viruses mutate frequently and some of these
mutations allow them to cross from one species to
another eventually making there way to humans.


One of the more lethal strains is the Influenza A virus
H5N1, known as avian influenza. An adapted strain of
the H5N1 known as the Bird Flu, is extremely dangerous
because it can cause illness in humans and many other
animal species.

Having first appeared in animals in Asia the bird flu
killed hundreds of millions of animals before it was first
detected in the human population.

The mortality rate from the H5N1 Avian influenza virus
is very high, with 30% to 80% of the people infected
dying from the disease. Fortunately, it has only spread
to several hundred people since it was first discovered.

Influenza is a respiratory disease with symptoms that
last one to two weeks.

Seven Types of Symptoms of Influenza
A fever or feeling feverish
Chills
A cough or sore throat
A runny or stuffy nose
Fatigue
Headaches or body aches
Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea

The flu and the common cold have similar symptoms.
As a general rule, the flu is worse than a common cold.


Common complications of the flu are pneumonia, ear
and sinus infections, dehydration, and the worsening of
chronic illnesses. One should seek medical attention
immediately if any of the following symptoms appear:

Purple or blue discoloration of the lips
Pain or pressure in the chest, abdomen or neck
Severe or persistent vomiting
Fever over 102 degrees
Difficulty breathing
Sudden dizziness
Confusion
Seizures



The flu spreads when an infected person coughs,
sneezes, or talks and droplets containing the influenza
virus are inhaled by another person.

Prevention
The best defense against the flu is vaccination.

Other preventive measures include:
avoid exposure
live a healthy life style
get enough sleep
eat well



Treatment
Treatment for the flu starts with bed rest, drinking clear
fluids to prevent dehydration, and taking over-the-
counter medicines to help treat symptoms.

Examples of this include:
A humidifier can make breathing easier.
Salt water gargles will help with sore throats.
Fevers and aches can be reduced with pain relievers.

Each year scientists are on the lookout for new influenza
viruses. They create vaccines for these new viruses and
vaccinate through flu shots that people get each fall.

Doctors attempt to find all the new viruses, but
sometimes they can't. It is also possible that a new virus
that is very infectious and very lethal, like the virus
portrayed in the movie Contagion, will spread before the
doctors even know it exists.

Scientists rate the danger of a strain of a virus using two
measures: how infectious it is (how easily it passes from
one person to another) and how lethal it is (what
percentage of people die once they become ill).

Pandemic
A pandemic is a disease that occurs over a wide
geographic area and affects an exceptionally high
portion of the human population.


Pandemic
In the last 100 years there have been four influenza
pandemics. Here they are compared to the seasonal flu
in the table below.



Name Years People infected
% of world
population
Deaths Death rate
Seasonal Flu Every year
300 million to 1
billion
5-15%
250,000
500,000
< 0.1%
Spanish Flu 1918 - 1919 500 million 33% - 40%
20 to 100
million
> 2.5%
Asian Flu 1956 - 1957 Unknown Unknown 2 million < 0.1%
Hong Kong
Flu
1968 - 1969 Unknown Unknown 1 million < 0.1%
Swine Flu 2009 - 2010 622,000 .000009%
14,000 to
18,000
0.03%



The Spanish Flu Pandemic
The Spanish Flu in 1918 was the worst flu pandemic in
modern history. More people died from the Spanish Flu
pandemic than from the hostilities in World War I.
675,000 people died from the pandemic in the U.S. The
average life expectancy in the U.S. was cut by 11.8 years
due to the Spanish Flu.

The government prohibited stores from holding sales,
limited funerals to 15 minutes, banned all public
meetings, and restricted entry into many cities in hopes
of stopping the spread of the flu. Nothing worked.

Spanish influenza virus was not identified until 1933.
The Spanish Flu Pandemic





Killing between 20 million and 100 million people in just
one year, the Spanish Flu was one of the worst pandemics
in history. Its death toll compares to the current AIDS
epidemic in which 34 million have died over 20 years.
There are, on the average, three influenza pandemics
per century. All of the influenza viruses in the world are
maintained in the vast aquatic bird population, and
periodically they can transmit to other species.

So even though some of these viruses are ancient, they
still have the capacity to evolve, or to acquire new genes
and new hosts. The potential is still there for the
catastrophe of 1918 to happen again.