Summer 2008 Workshop

in Biology and Multimedia

for High School Teachers

INFLUENZA
VIRUS:
A Model for Learning
About Disease
Laurie St.Pierre
Sandwich High School
Sandwich, MA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:EM_of_influenza_virus.jpg

Understanding Influenza:
A Contagious Respiratory Illness

Cause
History
Method of infection and replication
Symptoms and diagnosis
Prevention and Treatment
Current research

CAUSE: RNA Virus

The influenza virus,

commonly known as
file:///Users/outre
the flu, is an
ach/Desktop/DES
infectious disease of
KTOP
birds and mammals
%202008/curr
caused by RNA
viruses. Commonly
%20project/Imag
confused with a cold,
e-3D
the flu is a much
%20Influenza
more severe disease
%20virus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:3D_Influenza_virus.png
and caused by a
different virus.

History: Known Flu

Pandemics

Name of
pandemic

Date

Deaths

Asiatic Flu

1889-1890

1 million

Spanish Flu

1918-1920

40 -100
million

Asian Flu

1957-1958

1 - 1.5 million

Hong Kong
Flu

1968-1969

0.75 - 1
million

Information taken from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/influenza

1918 Flu Pandemic

American
Red Cross
nurses tend to
flu patients in
temporary
wards set up
inside the
Oakland
municipal
Auditorium.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1918_flu_in_Oakland.jpg

1918 Flu Pandemic Facts:

May have killed as many people as the Black Death- bubonic plague

The majority of deaths were from a secondary infection such as bacterial

pneumonia

It killed between 2 and 20 % of those infected; normal mortality rate is 0.1

%

It mostly killed young adults with more than half of the deaths in people
between 20 - 40 years old due to novel surface proteins on the virus.

It killed as many as 25 million in the first 25 weeks, whereas HIV/AIDS has

killed 25 million in the first 25 years.

Information taken from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/influenza

Historical factors
may have also
contributed to the
spread of the
1918 -1919 flu:

QuickTime and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

Global war moving

people great
distances
Crowded conditions
in troop ships

Street car conductor from

Seattle not allowing passengers
aboard without a mask in 1918.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:165-WW-269B-11-trolley-l.jpg

Method of Infection and

Replication:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Virus_Replication_large.svg

The flu virus binds onto sugars on the

surfaces of epithelial cells such as nose, throat,
and lungs of mammals and intestines of birds.

Symptoms & Diagnosis:

Chills
Body aches, especially throat and joints
Coughing and sneezing
Extreme fever
Fatigue, headache, and nasal congestion
Though similar symptoms occur with a
cold, they are much more severe with
the flu!

Information taken from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/influenza

Prevention & Treatment of the

Flu:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I
mage:Aerosol_from_Sneeze.
jpg

Get the flu vaccine each year due to high mutation rate of the virus.

Since the flu is a virus, antibiotics wont work unless there is a secondary bacterial infection.

Practice good hygiene and personal health habits.

Cover your mouth when while sneezing and wash your hands regularly as the virus spreads through
aerosols.

Influenza in the News:

Scientists Recreate 1918

Flu Virus From Scratch

By

Mike Stobbe, Associated Pressposted: 05 October 2005 03:23

pm ET

Insides of Flu Virus Revealed

By Ker Than, LiveScience Staffposted: 26 January 2006 08:06 am ET

Possible Path to Humans for Avian Flu Found

By Sara Goudarzi, LiveScience Staff Writerposted: 16 March 2006 02:00 pm ET

http://www.livescience.com/

Current Research:

The Influenza Genome

Sequencing Project - creating a
library of influenza sequences to
study why one strain is more
lethal than another.

Research into new vaccines.

Study the infection in other

animals, especially birds.Viral
strains between species can
occur.

http://www.influenzareport.com/ir/ai.htm
Courtesy of Timm Harder

QuickTime and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

Scheme of avian influenza pathogenesis and

epidemiologyLPAIV - low pathogenic avian influenza
virus; HPAIV - highly pathogenic avian influenza virus;
HA - haemagglutinin protein; dotted lines with arrows
represent species barriers