Respiratory viruses Flashcards
Why do birds hardly ever get viral respiratory infections?
Birds have separate inspiratory and expiratory bronchi - flow through system causes them to hardly get viral infections of respiratory tract
Why is the common adage that being in an area that is cold, gives you a cold, wrong?
Exposure to cold weather does not make you sick, but if sufficiently bad, can cause one to become immunosuppressed and be susceptible to respiratory virus
Respiratory infections cause about ___% of acute illnesses that result in loss of time from work.
80
What percentage of respiratory infections are viral?
80%
Influenza and pneumonia cause long _______.
absences
Describe the infectious cycling and incubation period of respiratory viruses.
respiratory viruses have seasonality
they have short incubation periods - 1-4 days
How contagious are respiratory viruses?
Very
What group do influenza viruses belong to?
Orthomyxovirus group
Describe the morphology of influenza viruses, and genome.
Enveloped, single (-ve) stranded RNA virus
What are the different types of influenza viruses?
What do they infect?
A, B, C
B and C infect only humans, do not cause pandemics
A is naturally found in the gut of waterfowl but can infect poultry, swine, horses and humans
What are the surface proteins of Influenza virus?
Hemagglutinin
Neuraminidase
How many subtypes of hemagglutinin are there? What does hemagglutinin do?
15
Binds to oligosaccharides (on cell surface) containing terminal sialic acids
i.e. allows adsoprtion
How many subtypes of neuraminidase are there?
9
What does neuraminidase mediate?
Budding off from host cell
Point mutations in the genes that code for hemagluttinin and neuraminidase which produces minor antigenic variations from year to year within the same HA/NA type
antigenic drift
Why is antigenic drift usually not much of an issue?
The change is often not significant and people often have cross reactivity.
What is the danger of antigenic shift?
Two different influenza viruses infect the same host cell, recombine genes and spit out a completely new virus - has the potential to cause a pandemic.
What are key characteristics of antigenic shift?
Random
can happen anywhere
Pandemic strains usually replace previously circulating strains
Pandemic strains of Inlfuenza usually present on average after how many years?
10-20 years
Can you have a countdown to a pandemic of influenza?
No, it’s random
What are the symptoms/signs of the flu?
How long do they last for?
Fever, chills, cough and myalgia
3-5 days
Describe the difference in impact of Influenza based on age.
Usually a minor illness in the young and healthy
often fatal in the elderly
For who else can Influenza be fatal?
those with cardiorespiratory disease
What does the flu not have, except in children?
No vomitting or diarrhea
except for about 25% of kids