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Influenza, a persistant threat

Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg once commented that “the single biggest threat to man’s continued dominance on the planet is the virus”. Throughout recent history, few viruses have had such a global impact as influenza. The 20th century alone saw several major pandemic outbreaks, each with significant death tolls. Perhaps most worryingly, recent years have seen a resurgence of more virulent strains of influenza, once again highlighting the threat posed by this virus.

Influenza, more commonly known as the ‘flu, is an infectious respiratory disease caused by single-stranded RNA viruses belonging to the Orthomyxoviridae family. Typically transmitted through saliva and nasal secretions by coughing and sneezing, influenza viruses cause a variety of symptoms including headache, cough, fever, sore throat, myalgia and general malaise. The typical epidemiological pattern of influenza is of seasonal epidemics. In this, its commonest form, influenza has consistently been, and remains, the scourge of the winter months. It invariably results in hundreds of thousands of ‘flu-related deaths in vulnerable populations, and remains a persistent problem for health authorities throughout the world.

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