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
•
•
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:3D_Influenza_virus.png
The influenza virus,
commonly known as
the flu, is an infectious
disease of birds and
mammals caused by
RNA viruses.
Commonly confused
with a cold, the flu is a
much more severe
disease 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:
• Global war moving
people great distances
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
• 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/Imag
e:Aerosol_from_Sneeze.jpg
•
•
•
•
Get the flu vaccine each year due to high mutation rate of the virus.
Practice good hygiene and personal health habits.
Cover your mouth when while sneezing and wash your hands regularly
as the virus spreads through aerosols.
Since the flu is a virus, antibiotics won’t work unless there is a
secondary bacterial infection.
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.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
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
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