Influenza

Essay by ffetsHigh School, 10th grade May 2004

download word file, 2 pages 3.0

Downloaded 40 times

Influenza is a viral infection.It is an infection of the air passages (respiratory tract). It causes:Fever,

Head ache,

Muscle ache,

Weakness,

Chills,

Loss of appitite,

Fatigue.

Influenza is formally known as 'flu'.

Flu is spread by virus infected droplets coughed or sneezed into the air by a person who is carrying the virus around.It usually occurs in small outbrakes or very rarely in epidemics.Outbrakes tend to occur in winter;it spreads rapidly especially in schools and old peoples' homes.

Causes

There are three types of influenza virus's called, A, B and C.

A person who has been attacked by virus C needs antibodies (proteins made by the immune system).They should provide immunity against the virus for life.Type C only causes a mild illness that is not much different from a cold, none of the symptons aply to type C except weakness.

If you have been suffering from type B you would have been feeling lilke you were going to die.

This is because you will have suffered all of the symptons above. The type B virus is quite stable but it occasionally alters just like the cold virus. A new strain can ofton cause small outbrakes of infection.

The type A version of influenza is the worst out of all three not only do you suffer all the symptons listed above but it is highly unstable, so if you thought, you felt like you were going to die when you had type B with type A you might as well be sleeping in your coffin. It is very rare for a person to die from flu unless it keeps resisting the antibodies it will become a severe case of pneumonia and that can kill you in 2-3 days (sooner in a young healthy adult).New strains appear constantly...