Did you ever think about only one disease that causes the death of 50 million people? and around a year!!!!
Unfortunately, it already happened between 1918-1919 and is known as Spanish flu.
Flu (influenza) is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by influenza viruses, which are divided into three types A, B and C.
Type A influenza is the most frightening and epidemic.
Type B influenza causes milder symptoms than type A.
Type C influenza tends to be mild and does not spark epidemics.
Type A flu virus is subdivided into subtypes based on two surface proteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA).
Now, Scientists know 16 HA subtypes and 9 NA subtypes of the flu virus.
A (H1N1) and A (H3N2) are the subtypes of influenza A viruses found in people, and there are no subtypes of influenza B virus.
The influenza viruses contain eight segments of single-strand RNA , continually change over time through “antigenic drift” or “antigenic shift”.
So, there is new flu vaccine every year and from time to time we face a new flu outbreaks.
Now, there is real fear between scientists and people of transmission of influenza viruses from animals to people.
There is a promising trial of new flu vaccine , targeting the internal proteins of the virus, this vaccine may be used in vaccination of many viruses like flu in mechanism of infection. (you can see BBC report Here).
References :
Flu Virus Can Change: “Drift” and “Shift”
For Further reading
Bacterial Pneumonia and 1918 flu
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