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INFLUENZA — THE WORLD PROBLEM
Author(s) -
COCKBURN W. CHAS.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1973.tb111167.x
Subject(s) - neuraminidase , virology , antigenic shift , virus , epidemiology , antigenic drift , antigen , strain (injury) , vaccination , biology , h5n1 genetic structure , human mortality from h5n1 , influenza a virus , immunology , medicine , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , covid-19 , pathology , anatomy
Three antigens of the influenza A virus are known to be important. The two surface antigens, the haemagglutinin and the neuraminidase, vary independently, and because of the need to indicate the three antigens, and because strains of influenza A virus from animals other than man and from birds may resemble each other, a new nomenclature giving the necessary information has been devised and published by WHO. The main purpose of the WHO Influenza Programme, established in 1947, is to obtain strains from different parts of the world and have their antigenic structure characterized as rapidly as possible, so that antigenic changes can be detected as soon as they occur. The second purpose is to obtain as much epidemiological information as possible. There are now 90 National Influenza Centres cooperating with the Virus Diseases Unit of WHO, and there are two International Influenza Centres. Between 1968 and 1973 two variants of influenza A virus have been prevalent ‐ A/Hong Kong/1/68 (H 3 N 2 ), which was identified in 1968, and A/England/42/72 (H 3 N 2 ), which was first isolated in 1971 and which has now replaced the earlier strain. Both have been responsible for widespread epidemics and for a considerable increase in the number of deaths, but on first analysis the epidemics associated with the current strain seem to have lasted for a much shorter time than the earlier ones. Despite the great advances in virology and epidemiology, influenza is still one of the uncontrolled epidemic diseases. Vaccination, when wisely used, is of great benefit to the individual, but it is not possible to use it for the control of epidemic spread. Let us hope that current laboratory and ecological studies in present circumstances may lead to means of so using it in the future.