Title:- avian influenza microbes
Avian flu, or the killer flu, is one of the most deadly form of viral infections. It was listed by Hippocrates in 412 BC and is one of the most feared viruses in the world, with newer and advanced strains surfacing each year. The morphology and the microbiology of avian influenza microbes comprises of glyoproteins--hemagluttin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA). Glycoproteins keep changing its form and structure, thus causing it difficult for the human immune system to develop the required antiviral antibody. In fact you due to the changing nature of these surface proteins, you have the influenza A, influenza B, influenza C and the "thogotovirus" strains of the virus.
All influenza A strains of the virus which infect humans, also infect the different avian species. Only the influenza B virus is usually limited to humans. The fact that aquatic birds can harbor and spread the virus, it is for certain that the virus is here to remain. But he unpredictable happened a few years ago, when a totally new form of the influenza a virus, the H5N1, was found in a child. This case brought to light the fact that the virus was now able to replicate and transmit from birds directly to humans.
While human strains of influenza are usually not fatal, other animal strains, such as the Hong Kong "bird flu" of 1997, which killed 6800 chickens in the rural New Territories, can be lethal (4). The possibility of different strains crossing the species barrier is one that is indeed very real, and could have a catastrophic effect on humans who bear no immune resistance to a fast and furiously changing virus. The Hong Kong bird flu epidemic was in fact the resultant of this very H5N1.
Avian flu, or the killer flu, is one of the most deadly form of viral infections. It was listed by Hippocrates in 412 BC and is one of the most feared viruses in the world, with newer and advanced strains surfacing each year. The morphology and the microbiology of avian influenza microbes comprises of glyoproteins--hemagluttin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA). Glycoproteins keep changing its form and structure, thus causing it difficult for the human immune system to develop the required antiviral antibody. In fact you due to the changing nature of these surface proteins, you have the influenza A, influenza B, influenza C and the "thogotovirus" strains of the virus.
All influenza A strains of the virus which infect humans, also infect the different avian species. Only the influenza B virus is usually limited to humans. The fact that aquatic birds can harbor and spread the virus, it is for certain that the virus is here to remain. But he unpredictable happened a few years ago, when a totally new form of the influenza a virus, the H5N1, was found in a child. This case brought to light the fact that the virus was now able to replicate and transmit from birds directly to humans.
While human strains of influenza are usually not fatal, other animal strains, such as the Hong Kong "bird flu" of 1997, which killed 6800 chickens in the rural New Territories, can be lethal (4). The possibility of different strains crossing the species barrier is one that is indeed very real, and could have a catastrophic effect on humans who bear no immune resistance to a fast and furiously changing virus. The Hong Kong bird flu epidemic was in fact the resultant of this very H5N1.
