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INFLUENZA
What is it?
- Common disease that causes significant morbidity and mortality worldwide
- Both seasonal and pandemic influenza occurs
- Vaccination can decrease disease incidence and spread
- Treatment can decrease disease severity
- Orthomyxoviruses (RNA virus)
- 6 genera
Why do we care about influenza?
- Pandemic Influenza
- Can infect and kill young, healthy people
- 1918 H1N1 Influenza pandemic infected an estimated 500 million globally
- Approximately 20% of the world’s population
- Killed an estimated 50 million (may be as high as 100 million)
- 2%-3% of the world’s population died
- Seasonal Influenza
- Most often causes severe disease in the very young, very old, and those with chronic illnesses
- Estimated between 3-5 million cases of severe illness around the world annually
- Between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths
Bottom line
- Influenza is a potentially life threatening disease.
- Both seasonal and pandemic influenza are global concerns.
- Morbidity and mortality can be decreased through appropriate vaccination and treatment