...Influenza Introduction Influenza is among the most prevalent infectious airborne viral diseases that affect the respiratory system. According to the World Health Organization (2016), the infection majorly affects the throat, nose, and the bronchi, and on rare occasions, it may affect the lungs. Also commonly known as the flu, influenza infection is characterized by sneezing, itchy and running nose as well as throat inflammation. The initial signs and symptoms include fever with temperatures higher that 100F, soreness in the back, myalgia, legs and arm muscles, sweats and chills, frontal or retro-orbital headaches, tachycardia, red, watery eyes, and fatigue. Sometimes, a dry and persistent cough, nasal congestion and discharge occur (Clark & Lynch, 2011). Causes and Transmission The Influenza viruses are transmitted in the form of droplets through the atmosphere whenever an infected individual speaks, coughs or even sneezes. A healthy person can either get infected through directly inhaling these contaminated droplets or obtain the viruses from contaminated objects like computer keyboards, mouses or even the phones, and move them to the respiratory pathways like the nose and mouth. According to Clark & Lynch (2011), the infected individuals become contagious a day before the appearance of the first symptoms and continue in this state up to 5 to 10 days after. Studies have revealed that young children and individuals with compromised immune systems remain in the contagious...
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...The Influenza Virus Susan Helmuth Grand Canyon University Concepts in Community and Public Health NRS-427V December 14,21014 Communicable Disease Communicable diseases have been a global problem for many years. Influenza Virus infection is an internal public health burden. This paper will include a description of influenza and the demographics involved. The health factors that contribute to the virus, the epidemiologic triage as related to the virus. The explanation of the role the community health nurse has and the organizations that addresses influenza virus. In conclusion, the community health nurse plays a major role in increasing immunization coverage, there for decreasing the communicable disease of influenza. Influenza Virus Influenza Virus also calls the Flu, is a contagious viral infection of the nose, throat, and lungs that appears most often in the winter months. It can cause mild to serve reactions. It is a serious infection that affects more than 60 million people in the United States a year. The cause of the Flu is by influenza virus. There are three types being discussed. Type A flu viruses are found in some animals, such as ducks, chickens, pigs and horses. The forms of A and B are responsible for the commune seasonal flu Influenza type B viruses are only found in humans. Influenza type C infection causes mild respiratory infections, and is not thought to be a cause for epidemics. A new or different influenza virus can cause influenza pandemic...
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...Seasonal Influenza Each year thousands of people in the United States are diagnosed with the influenza virus. The word “influenza” originates from the Italian word “influential” because people used to believe that the influence of the planets, stars, and moon caused the flu, that only the universal influence could explain such rapid and widespread sickness. The English adopted the word “influenza” in the mid-eighteenth century. It is known as the flu. Seasonal influenza is an acute viral infection caused by an influenza virus. What is the influenza virus? Virologists are not certain about the origins of the viruses, though they have three theories: they started as living cells and devolved into simpler organisms, they originated as primitive...
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...Bird Flu of H5N1 virus threatens world pandemic Public health has traditionally been an area of concern as anything that poses a threat to humans should be considered a top priority societally. From a global standpoint if public health is neglected then the amount of preventable deaths would rise exponentially. In the past few years several events have been noted as threats to public health, but society had identified them quick enough so that the threat to humans was minimized. One such event occurred in 2006 and was known as the bird flu. Although there is currently no vaccine for this strain of bird flu the rapid identification of this deadly virus helped to minimize its spread. According to Medline, birds just like humans can be stricken with the flu but the virus historically only affected avian species without the potential to affect humans. This remained true until 1997 in Hong Kong when the first case of the avian flu was reported. This avian virus has the ability to mutate or change its genetic makeup so that it can be easily incorporated into the human genome, thus causing a new form of flu that can be deadly and difficult to treat. Since 1997 the avian flu has spread to several countries and has severely affected both the commercial poultry supply and humans alike. Although the viral transition to infecting humans is rare, the avian flu is responsible for approximately 600 infections since its inception with a mortality rate of 60% (National Library of Medicine...
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...Pandemic Emergency Plan Name Course Professor Date Overview of Pandemic Emergency plan The Pandemic Emergency Plan is one of the 2015-2016 bills (code CMS–3178–P) addressing the campus preparedness actions and the responses designed to maximizing pandemic impact on operations within the Campus environs, students, and the employees (Dietz, 2012). The plan design is with intents of reading, understanding and exercising in response to threats and occurrences of a pandemic or just any other outbreak that may become a global epidemic. Pandemic means a widespread outbreak of communicable ailments, passing as multiple waves of illness in human population globally (Fagel, 2013). It is also illness with impact to the smaller geographical region. In the case of occurrence of a pandemic, then it shall have higher education among industries that are severely affected due to risks resultants from open and campus accessible and traveling by faculties, students, as well as the staff (PHS COF, 2014). The impacts may include lengthy closure periods of the learning institutions, unprecedented demands on students counseling and heath related services, evacuation and relocation of the students in the residence halls and significant revenue losses. In the case of a pandemic, the greatest challenges experienced in the university include the following: 1. Maintenance of students' progress to degree and research on faculties while in compliance with orders to campus closure. 2. Managing staff, faculty...
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...1. PURPOSE AND CONTENTS General This section outlines the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Policy formalized by the Board of Directors of BANK on DATE. Topics covered in this policy are: Policy Statement Topic 2 Plan Overview Topic 3 Board of Directors and Senior Management Responsibilities Topic 4 Incident Response Team Responsibilities Topic 5 Business Impact Analysis Topic 6 Risk Assessment and Management Topic 7 Travel Impact and Alternatives Topic 8 Staff Training Topic 9 Employee Compensation and Leave of Absence Topic 10 Contact With Public Health Agencies Topic 11 Plan Testing Topic 12 Effective Date All employees of BANK, herein referenced to as the “Bank”, must comply with the terms of this policy immediately. Managers, employees and technical personnel must modify system configurations and procedures, if necessary, to comply with the terms of this policy within TIME PERIOD. 2. POLICY STATEMENT General It is the policy of the Bank to develop, implement and maintain a preparedness strategy with respect to the threat and potential impact of a pandemic influenza event. Pandemics are defined as epidemics or outbreaks of infectious diseases in humans that have the ability to spread rapidly over large areas, possibly worldwide. The United States Government has issued a National Strategy that discusses the threat and potential impact of a pandemic influenza event. The Implementation Plan for the National Strategy identifies roles and...
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...Excelsior College Microbiology 212/ Dr. Odeh Raichell Fuentes December 4, 2014 Avian Flu Viral Disease Avian influenza is used to describe influenza A subtypes that primarily affect chickens, turkeys, quail, geese. Avian influenza is an ecological classification. Outbreaks of influenza have been recognized in poultry (chickens and turkeys) for many years. Avian influenza strains are classified according to disease severity recognized forms: highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), also known as fowl plague, and low-pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI). Avian influenza viruses that cause HPAI are highly virulent, and mortality rates in infected flocks often very high. LPAI viruses are generally of lower virulence, but these viruses can serve as progenitors to HPAI viruses. Human infections caused by avian strains have been associated with HPAI (H5, H7, and H9) . Infected birds spread the virus per nasal secretion, saliva, feces. They have swollen necks and a bluish coloring around their neck. Human symptoms effect respiratory tract to a rapid pneumonia. Treatment is the best prevention to increase the chances of getting the avain flu viral disease. Prevention is to avoid contaminated environment and places and live poultry markets and practice good hygiene. The World population want to defuse a risk of a full blown epidemic . Hello to Members of Congress. Thank you for this moment in time to discuss a bill that would protect the health and wellness in people within the World...
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...and passes were suspended until further notice. The significance of the event of a Swine Flu outbreak was headline news in most newspapers across the nation. In The New York Times April 27, 2009, an article titled, U.S. Declares Public Health Emergency Over Swine Flu (McNeil, Jr., 2012), illustrates the reason for my call early in the morning and why the need to put my Company on alert. The article outlined the possible global pandemic stemming from swine flu cases from Mexico. In the United States 20 cases of the swine flu were confirmed during this time, leading American health officials declaring a public health emergency. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed eight illnesses from the H1N1virus in Queens, NY. Those illnesses came from St. Francis Preparatory School and prompted the Mayor of NY Michael R. Bloomberg to ensure the community that all those cases had been mild, and that city hospitals were not reporting an increase in severe lung infections caused by the virus (McNeil, Jr., 2010). Swine Flu in humans is called Influenza A H1N1 (Swine Flu). The swine flu virus is a respiratory illness found in pigs (swine). The A H1N1 is a virus that was believed to have derived from pigs and thereby was named Swine...
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...of Contents Introduction Page 2 What is Spanish Flu and what happened during the pandemic? Page 2 How the situation was handled in 1918 Page 2-3 Impacts from the Spanish Flu Page 3-4 Impacts of mass gathering Page 4-5 Crisis Management Page 5 Additional information that may have arose from research Page 5-6 Recommendations Page 6-7 How the Hospitality sector should act Page 7 Hotel Response Plan Page 8-9 Sample Guest Letter Page 9 Conclusion Page 9 References Page 10-11 Appendices Page 12 Introduction Spanish flu in the year 1918 was a pandemic crisis that greatly affected everyone worldwide. To this day researchers are still studying the influenza pandemic and are working to counter future pandemics. When the Spanish flu came it created many negative impacts to the daily lives of the citizens and industries. Learning from the past, there are many recommendations that industries should implement in order to counter the spreading of a future oncoming pandemic. Crisis management is important during such a deadly situation and every business should create a plan. This document talks about what is Spanish flu and how should it affected the hospitality industry. This document also talks about what steps hotels should take during a pandemic. What is Spanish Flu and what happened during the pandemic? Spanish flu is an avian flu that occurred in 1918, it was more deadly than the World War...
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...• ^ International Committee on onomy of Viruses. "The Universal Virus Database, version 4: Influenza A". http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ICTVdb/ICTVdB/00.046.0.01.htm. [dead link] 1. ^ a b c d e f "Swine influenza". The Merck Veterinary Manual. 2008. ISBN 1442167424. http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/121407.htm. Retrieved April 30, 2009. 2. ^ [1][dead link] 3. ^ Heinen PP (15 September 2003). "Swine influenza: a zoonosis". Veterinary Sciences Tomorrow. ISSN 1569-0830. http://www.vetscite.org/publish/articles/000041/print.html. "Influenza B and C viruses are almost exclusively isolated from man, although influenza C virus has also been isolated from pigs and influenza B has recently been isolated from seals." 4. ^ Bouvier NM, Palese P (September 2008). "THE BIOLOGY OF INFLUENZA VIRUSES". Vaccine 26 Suppl 4 (Suppl 4): D49–53. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2008.07.039. PMC 3074182. PMID 19230160. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=3074182. 5. ^ Kimura H, Abiko C, Peng G et al. (April 1997). "Interspecies transmission of influenza C virus between humans and pigs". Virus Research 48 (1): 71–9. doi:10.1016/S0168-1702(96)01427-X. PMID 9140195. 6. ^ a b Matsuzaki Y, Sugawara K, Mizuta K et al. (February 2002). "Antigenic and Genetic Characterization of Influenza C Viruses Which Caused Two Outbreaks in Yamagata City, Japan, in 1996 and 1998". Journal of Clinical Microbiology 40 (2): 422–9. doi:10.1128/JCM.40.2.422-429...
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...Next Pandemic By Michael T. Osterholm From Foreign Affairs, July/August 2005 [pic] Summary: If an influenza pandemic struck today, borders would close, the global economy would shut down, international vaccine supplies and health-care systems would be overwhelmed, and panic would reign. To limit the fallout, the industrialized world must create a detailed response strategy involving the public and private sectors. Michael T. Osterholm is Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, Associate Director of the Department of Homeland Security's National Center for Food Protection and Defense, and Professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health. FEAR ITSELF Dating back to antiquity, influenza pandemics have posed the greatest threat of a worldwide calamity caused by infectious disease. Over the past 300 years, ten influenza pandemics have occurred among humans. The most recent came in 1957-58 and 1968-69, and although several tens of thousands of Americans died in each one, these were considered mild compared to others. The 1918-19 pandemic was not. According to recent analysis, it killed 50 to 100 million people globally. Today, with a population of 6.5 billion, more than three times that of 1918, even a "mild" pandemic could kill many millions of people. A number of recent events and factors have significantly heightened concern that a specific near-term pandemic may be imminent. It could be caused by H5N1, the avian influenza strain...
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...Recognition and Types of Infectious Diseases Following Disasters TUI University Professor Dr. Paul Persaud Fall 2015 For this Case Assignment you are to comment on the similarities and differences in pre-event preparation between an infectious disease event and other emergencies. The initial pre-planning response to most natural disaster is the same, however; in many cases emergency responders are the first to detect an infectious disease outbreak. For this reason it is important to properly pre-plan in advance for events that have potential in developing infectious disease outbreaks, which is common in developing countries following a natural disaster. The health impacts associated with the sudden crowding coupled with large numbers of survivors, often with insufficient access to safe water and sanitation facilities, will require planning for both medical and preventive interventions, such as rehydration, antibiotics and vaccination materials (World Health Organization, 2006). The sooner the incident and at-risk patients are identified, the higher the likelihood of decreasing morbidity, mortality, and cost associated with the event. The biggest difference between infectious disease disasters and other natural mass casualty’s events is that infectious disease disasters are more difficult to detect. With natural disasters, and even traditional or chemical terrorism, there is an obvious sign that something abnormal has happened or is going to happen. This...
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...[pic] Polyclonal Antibodies - Immunoglobulin (IgY) April 2012 Table of Contents 1.0 The Immune System 3 2.0 Antibodies 6 3.0 Avian Antibodies 7 4.0 Why IGY? 8 5 .0 Polyclonal Versus Monoclonal Antibodies………………………………………………………..9 6.0 Purpose of IGY Inc. – Antibody Extraction 10 7.0 IGY for Use in Humans ………………..………………………………………………………….11 8.0 References 15 IGY Immune Technologies & Life Sciences Inc. 1.0 The Immune System The human immune system is comprised of a complex network of lymphoid organs and highly specialized cells that protect the body against infection by recognizing and killing pathogens. This immune system includes lymphatic organs and vessels, lymph nodes, white blood cells, specialized cells and serum factors. The immune system utilizes both the lymphatic vessels and the blood circulatory system to transport white blood cells called lymphocytes through out the body (1). The immune system can be classified as an innate or adaptive system. As a first line of defense against pathogens, we depend on innate immunity. Innate immunity is nonspecific and includes physical barriers such as skin, mucous membranes and secretions with antimicrobial activity including tears and mucous. Pathogens that cross this line of defense are often destroyed by phagocytes which are white blood cells that engulf and digest cellular debris and foreign agents by the process known as phagocytosis...
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...Ebola virus disease Key facts * Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. * The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. * The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks. * The first EVD outbreaks occurred in remote villages in Central Africa, near tropical rainforests, but the most recent outbreak in west Africa has involved major urban as well as rural areas. * Community engagement is key to successfully controlling outbreaks. Good outbreak control relies on applying a package of interventions, namely case management, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe burials and social mobilisation. * Early supportive care with rehydration, symptomatic treatment improves survival. There is as yet no licensed treatment proven to neutralise the virus but a range of blood, immunological and drug therapies are under development. * There are currently no licensed Ebola vaccines but 2 potential candidates are undergoing evaluation. Background The Ebola virus causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if untreated. Ebola virus disease (EVD) first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, one in Nzara, Sudan, and the other in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter occurred in a village near...
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...emergency and post-conflict situations; To plan a communicable disease control programme for emergency settings; To discuss simple but effective ways of preventing outbreaks of communicable diseases; To describe how to manage specific disease outbreaks in emergency settings; To review re-emerging and other diseases that may affect displaced populations; To discuss how to monitor and evaluate communicable disease control programmes. Key competencies Identify communicable diseases of public health importance; Discuss the basic principles for communicable disease control in emergency and post-conflict situations; Discuss how to design and evaluate disease control programmes; Describe common disease control strategies including prevention, surveillance and outbreak investigation; Describe methods for promoting community-based and community-led communicable disease control approaches; Decide when to scale up and scale down disease control efforts; Discuss the causes, risk factors, clinical features and management of common diseases; Identify...
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