FREE ESSAY ON INFLUENCE OF INFLUENZA

INFLUENCE OF INFLUENZA

December 8, 1998
Microbiology 3300
9:00-11:50
Case Study: The InFLUence of the Influenza
The patient Terry B. (Case no.19), has acquired the microbial agent Pneumonia Influenza.
The patient is a three year old white male with a headache, lethargy and was running a
high fever of 39.7 degrees Celsius. He has suffered from a previous illness of infection
of the upper respiratory. Due to the fever, he had a systolic of 110 over 75 diastolic;
pulse of racy 100. The fever also accounted for abnormal nasal discharge. A viral agent
was concluded by the highly irregular hematology. The WBC (white blood count) was at a
high for compensation in immunity. A normal WBC is nine-thousand five-hundred, the
patient had a total count of twenty-one thousand. The Monocyte count, normally of 7, was
at a low 1. The remaining DIFF was typical of any patient suffering from a viral ailment;
neutrophils more than doubled at a count of 90 and bands were at 5 (normally 0). The
child was on a current medication of a decongestant and Amoxcillin. Amoxcillin has no
effect on inhibitting the viral growth of Pneumonia influenza, Rhinovirus, Parainfluenza,
Corona and respitory synctial viruses. This also eliminated the disease obviously
effecting the respitory tract and the child's neurology (lethargy and malaise) form being
bacterial or fungal, which is common amongst young children.
A number of viruses cause respitory illness similar to the common cold, but are much more
severe in intensity and wit frequently serious, and even fatal, complications. The best
known of the group is Influenza (flu) virus. It can cause mild symptoms that are
indistinguishable from those of the common cold, but in the more easily recognizable form
it is ushered in by fever, cough, and what doctors refer to as malaise--chills, muscle
ache, and fatigue. Pneumonia might be defined as any inflamation of the lung tissue
itself, but the term is generally applied only to infections of an acute or rapidly
developing nature caused by certain bacteria or viruses. The term is generally not used
for the tuberculous or fungal infections. Influenza, a viral infection of the respitory
tract (air passages) that cause fever, headache, and weakness. Popularly known as the
flu, it is spread by virus infected droplets coughed or sneezed into the air. Influenza
usually occurs in small outbreaks, or every few years in epidemics. Out breaks tend to
occur in winter; They spread paticulary rapidly through schools and institutions for the
elderly. There have been 31 very severe pandemics (epedemics that sweep many countries)
that have occurred since 1510. The Most devestating of these pandemics occurred in 1918;
it led the death of twenty million people around the world. Rarely is death directly
attributable to the influenza virus itself, but rather to complicating bacterial
pneumonia or to the failure of vital organs previously weakened by chronic disesase. 
There are three main types of the influenza virus, called A,B, and C. A person who has
had an attack with the type C virus acquires antibodies (proteins made by the immune
system) that provides immunity against the type C virus for life Anyone who has been
infected with a certain strand of the type A or B viruse acquires immunity to that
strain. Both A- and B-type viruses occasionally alter to prouduce new strains that may be
able to dodge or overcome immunity built up from a previous attack, Thus leading to an
new infection. The type B virus is fairly stable, but it occasionly alters sufficiently
to overcome resistance. The newe strain often cause small outbreaks of infection. The
type A virus is highly unstable; new strains arise constantly thruoghout the world. These
are the strains that caused the influenza pandemics of this century, most notably the
Spanish flu in in 1918, Asian flu in 1957, and Hon Kong flu in 1968.
Pneumonia develops from inhaling infected mucus into the lower respitory passages. The
pneumonia coccus is often present in the nasal or throat secretions of healty people, and
it tends to be present even more often in the same secretions of an individual with the
cold. Under certain conditions these secretions may be aspirated, or inhaled, into the
lung. There the bacteria rapidly mulitiply and spreads to infect a sizeable area. As with
the common cold, chilling and fatigue often play a role in making this sequence possible.
Any chronic debilitating illness also makes one very susceptible to pneumonia.
The classic symptoms of flu (chills, fever, headache, muscle ache, loss of appetite, and
fatigue) are brought on by types A and B virus. Type C causes only a mild illness that is
indistinguishable to the common cold. In general, type A is more debilitating than type
B. Pnemonia develops very suddenly with the onset of high fever, shaking chills, chest
pain, and a very definite feeling of sickness or malaise. Within hours enough puss is
produced within the lung for the patient to start coughing up thick yellow or greenish
sputum which often may be tinged or streaked with blood.
In all but the mildest cases, a person with influenza should rest in bed in a warm, well
ventillated room. Analgesics(pain killers) should be taken to relieve aches and pains and
to reduce fever. Warm fluids soothe a sore throat and inhaling steam has a soothing
effect on the lungs. The response of pneumococal pneumonia to penicillin is at times one
of the most dramatic thereapeutics in medicine. Smoking and cigarette smoke at all cost
should be avoided. The Incidence of pneumonia and bronchitis in infants examined over the
first trhee years of life showed a definite relationship between these diseases and
parents' smoking habits.