Epidemiology: Influenza

Running head: EPIDEMIOLOGY
Epidemiology: Influenza
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Answer: 1
Influenza (Flu) leads to mild to severe illness and if not treated on time might lead to
death. Flu is different from a cold and comes suddenly. Common complications associated
with flue include ear infections, bacterial pneumonia, sinus infections and other worsening
chronic conditions like congestive heart failure, diabetes and asthma. Some of the common
symptoms of flue include fever (however, not everyone who have flue suffers from fever),
coughing, sore throat, body aches, runny or stuffy nose, chills, headache, fatigue and at times
lead to vomiting and diarrhea (Centers of Disease Control Prevention [CDC], 2019). This
contagious respiratory illness is a viral disease and is caused by influenza virus that infects
the throat, nose and pulmonary organs. The spread of flu virus mainly occurs by tiny droplets,
excreted by a flu-infected person by means of sneeze, cough or talk. These water droplets
land on the nose or buccal opening of the nearby person leading to transmission of infection.
In rare cases, a person might develop flu infection via touching the object or surface that is
infected with the influenza virus. This infected or contaminated hand when come in contact
with the nose, mouth or eyes of that person, the viral particles are transmitted inside the body.
The time of onset of the first symptom is two days after the first exposure of the virus
however; this time might vary from person to person ranging from one to four days. Every
healthy individual is equally vulnerable to flu. However, children (younger than 5 years),
pregnant women and the older adults who are over 65 years of age are more vulnerable to
develop chronic viral flu. The previous pre-disposition of asthma, diabetes and heart disease
also increase the chance of developing flu (Centers of Disease Control Prevention [CDC],
2019).
According to Centre of Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] (2019), flu activity is
decreasing nationally however, it still elevated. Influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 viruses are more

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predominant during October to mid-February and influenza A (H3N2) is commonly
identified during February. The percentage of the respiratory specimens that have tested
positive for influenza viruses in the clinical laboratories have decreases however, influenza A
(H1N1) is predominant in all the 10 U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)
regions and this includes Boston, New York City, Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Atlanta,
Dallas, Kanas City, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle.
CDC is not aware of the exact death toll of people occurring due to seasonal flu each
year as states are not required to report individual flue related illness or death among the
people older than 18-year of age. Moreover, influenza is infrequently listed in death
certificates of people who die from flue-related complications (CDC, 2018).
Vaccination with flu vaccine is an important step for the prevention of flue each year.
There are antiviral drugs influenza drugs available for the treatment of flu. Common anti-
viral drugs used for the treatment of flue include zanamivir, oseltamovir, peramivir and
balozavir marboxil (CDC, 2018).
Answer: 2
According to Cordoba and Aiello (2016), influenza leads to increased rate of
absenteeism at work along with increase in the annual medical cost that increases the
economic burden by $12 to $14. Social determinants of health (SDH) have a significant
influence behind the developing of the chronic health conditions and mounting evidences
suggest that SDH strongly influence the development of respiratory infections in the U.S. The
main SDH associated with the prognosis of influenza include income, education, social class,
occupation, sex and ethnicity/race. People who hail from poor ethnic backgrounds or from
the minority class have poor access to the healthcare services and vaccinations. This
disadvantaged population is more vulnerable in getting infected with influence. Eradication

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of the institutional barriers towards receiving the vaccination might help to overcome the
situation. The lack of education is also a SDH behind spread of infection of influence. Annual
health benefits of influenza vaccination are well-established. However, the footfall of the
marginalized population in the immunization centers is less due to the gap in knowledge
about the disease progression (Cordoba & Aiello, 2016). The study conducted by Mendez-
Luck et al. (2016) highlighted that the black Americans and the Latinos are less likely to get
vaccinated in comparison to the white Americans due to their negative opinion regarding the
effectiveness and safety of vaccination. However, negative opinion about the vaccinations
and lack of proper access to healthcare services do not fully account for the generation of
health inequality in influenza. The marginalized population or ethical minority groups has
poor financial strength or government insurance coverage leading absenteeism in the
vaccination camps. Quinn et al. (2017) highlighted that 70% of the disadvantaged minority
people who resides in the NYC like the undocumented immigrants, sex workers, substance
users and the homeless are interested in being vaccinated but fail to avail the service due to
lack of insurance coverage. This lack of seasonal vaccination or completion of the booster
dosage of vaccination leads to the widespread infection of influenza.
Answer: 3
Epidemiologic Triangle is a model developed by scientists to study the health-related.
The three corners of the triangle indicated three different aspects of disease transition. The
top-most vertices of the triangle is host (organism harboring the disease: humans) and
baseline vertices of the triangle include agent (the causative agents) and environment
(external factors leading to the disease development) (CDC, 2015). In case of influenza (flu),
the causative agent is RNA virus that belongs to the Orthomyxovirus genus. It is classified
into three different types. A, B and C. Type A (Influenza A [H1N1], A [H3N2]) and type B