influenza - website research about the basics

Notes From http://www.who.int/topics/influenza/en/  

- Viral infection that affects nose, throat, bronchi and occasionally lungs
- Lasts roughly a week - 2 weeks
- Symptons: high fever, aching muscles, headache and severe malaise, non productive cough, sore throat and rhinitis 
- transmitted from person to person when coughed or sneezed 
- effects young and old more and can lead to severe complications of pneumonia and death
- Causes annual epidemics that peak during winter 
- Three types of seasonal influenza -A, B + C 
- A influenza virus type are put into sub types according to virus surface proteins 
- Currently A(H1N1) and A(H3N2) subtypes are circulating amoung humans 
- Type C occurs much less 
- can cause serious health and economic problems
- More productive losses in developed countries

Notes and Images From http://textbookofbacteriology.net/themicrobialworld/Influenza.html

An Electron Micrograph of Influenza virus

Virus illustration

- Belongs to Orthomyxovirus family - spherical or oval shaped
- Causes respiratory disease in humans
- Virus transmited through air in droplets
- Types A + B cause epidemics every winter
- Type C cause mild respiratory illness only
- Type A is common amoung other animals such as birds
- Displays a genetic plasticity unique to disease probing viruses
- Antigenic Shift  = a hybrid bypass to any immunity to parent strains built up in the population