Influenza Pandemic: Causes, Transmission, and Prevention Strategies

This report provides a detailed analysis of the influenza pandemic, drawing from the article by Robert G. Webster and Elizabeth Jane Walker. It begins with a historical overview of the 1919 influenza pandemic and highlights the potential for future outbreaks. The report explores the transmission of influenza, its origins in aquatic animals and birds, and the role of antigenic drift in creating new strains. It assesses the anatomy of the influenza virus, including its different genera and subtypes, and discusses the importance of rapid vaccine development and antiviral drug production. The report emphasizes the role of scientific communities in advocating for vaccine stockpiles and the economic and social costs associated with pandemics. It concludes by highlighting the critical need for vaccination programs and preparedness plans to mitigate the impact of future influenza outbreaks.

Introduction
Influenza was one of the deadliest epidemics that occurred in 1919, just after the first world
war. It had affected more than 500 million people, and killing 20-40 million people. There
was a warning given by renown epidemiologists that similar scenarios of pandemic could
occur again. The article talks about other epidemics as well such as the Asian flu in 1957,
Hong Kong flu in 1968 and exception of Spanish flu that killed people in the age of 20-40
years. During 1919, more than 500,000 people died in the USA from influenza, near to end of
world war 1.
Summary
The paper talks about the providing a guidance about the pandemic problems so that the same
could be contained easily in case of any such crisis. The article describes about the spread of
influenza and ways of transmission. As per the article, influenza comes from aquatic animals
and birds like ducks and it transmits from human to human through coughing or
sneezing. The article also portrays an image of Hong Kong bird flu where, in order to
contained the flu, more than 1 million birds were slaughtered in poultry farms. Most of the
pandemic have originated from china as they live in close proximity with animals. The article
assesses the anatomy of the deadly influenza virus and identifies four genera types namely A,
B, C and thogotovirus. These genera types also have certain sub classifications, for instance
type A has two categories HA and NA. One important concept that has been discussed in this
article is antigenic drift; the alteration of the antigenic sites where antibodies bind and prevent
the virus from spreading in the body. Every 20-30 years, the influenza type A undergoes a
change, known as antigenic drift and the human anti bodies get surprised by newer form of
the virus, and since they cannot fight with the new virus, a new pandemic occurs. The paper
also describes about the detailed biological structure of the type A influenza virus. Moreover,
there has been a detailed explanation about the hemagglutinin types from H1 to H15, stating
the few subtypes affect humans and few do not affect, where all sub type proteins are present
in ducks and hence influenza does not affect ducks. Under the explanation of prevention and
treatment section, it describes about different ways of creating vaccines and also there have
been multiple vaccines that have been derived from purified version of the viruses; the article
adds that there should be a faster mechanism to create vaccines for the viruses as soon as the
pandemic occurs. There have been instances where swine have been an intermediary between
humans and birds to spread the virus (Webster & Walker, 2003).

Conclusion
In the conclusive part of this paper, the authors have described the importance of producing
huge quantities of drugs to create antivirals and having pandemic plans in place. Authors
describe that best way to overcome the pandemic is to vaccinate as many people as possible.
Lastly, a greater focus has been laid on the role of scientific communities in convincing
nations to stockpile vaccines to overcome the pandemic. The economy and social cost of a
full-scale pandemic is huge as compared to the cost incurred in running vaccination
programs.
References
Webster, R. G., & Walker, E. J. (2003, March). Influenza: The world is teetering on the edge
of a pandemic that could kill a large fraction. The Scientific Research Honor Society-
JSTOR, 91(2), 122-129.