Title: 9 Influenza: An Emerging Microbial Pathogen
Abstract: This chapter discusses the different aspects of influenza. The highly contagious, acute respiratory illness known as “influenza” appears to have afflicted humans since ancient times. The sudden appearances of respiratory diseases that persist for a few weeks and equally suddenly disappear are sufficiently characteristic to permit the identification of a number of major epidemics in the distant past. Retrospective seroepidemiological analysis, also known as “seroarcheology,” suggests that the influenza epidemic in humans in 1889 and 1890 was caused by a virus antigenically similar to more contemporary Asian strains. The structure of influenza viruses of types A and B is similar, whereas influenza C reveals a different pattern of surface projections. The influenza viruses are unique among the respiratory tract viruses in that they undergo significant antigenic variation. Both of the surface antigens of the influenza A viruses undergo two types of antigenic variation: antigenic drift and antigenic shift. Antigenic drift involves minor antigenic changes in the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA), whereas shift involves major antigenic changes in these molecules resulting from the replacement of the gene segment.
Publication Year: 1998
Publication Date: 1998-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 2
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