Communicable Disease: Influenza
HCS/457 Public and Community Health
April 1st, 2013
Ebony Wardlaw
Communicable Disease: Influenza
Influenza has been a bane on public health for as long as humans have been contracting it. This virus touts record breaking numbers of death. According to National Archives and Records Administration, “The influenza epidemic that swept the world in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people. One fifth of the world's population was attacked by this deadly virus. Within months, it had killed more people than any other illness in recorded history.” However, with modern technology this disease can be limited if the right actions are taken by world, country, and local governments to restrict the spread of the disease and lower its complication and death rates.
Influenza and the Efforts to Control It
Influenza, also known as the flu, is a virus that mutates constantly and is widespread throughout the world. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013), “The flu is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that infect the nose, throat, and lungs. It can cause mild to severe illness, and at times can lead to death.” Some populations of people such as the young, elderly, and immune suppressed people may be more likely to experience complications and death because of the flu. Depending on the yearly strain involved the flu kills between 3,000 to 49,000 a year in the United States alone (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). Throughout human history influenza pandemics have scourged the human population. The last pandemic killed relatively few people compared with the last deadly pandemic of 1918. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012), “Though the most recent influenza pandemic was hard on the young, the impact on the global population overall during the first year was less severe than that of previous pandemics. Estimates of pandemic influenza mortality ranged...