Influenza

Influenza, commonly called “the ‘Flu”, is a common viral infectious disease. That means that It is contagious (easily passed from one person to another) and is caused by a virus.

Influenza in humans

Symptoms of Influenza include headache, coughing and other cold-like symptoms. These are accompanied by a high fever. The flu is easily treated with modern medicines, but many strains are nevertheless quite serious, particularly for children and older persons.

There have been several worldwide Flu epidemics, resulting in millions of deaths.

Equine Influenza

This is a species-specific strain that infects horses, ponies, donkeys and mules. Humans do not catch this disease but are carriers of it. It is airborne and highly contagious. Equine influenza generally does not kill its victims, and affected horses display similar symptoms to those of humans.

In 2007, a horse flu epidemic began in New South Wales, Australia. The outbreak is believed to have begun as a result of infractions of proper quarantine procedure and is expected to cost millions of dollars in lost revenue. As of September, 2007, it had spread to the Victorian border, causing the cancellation of events at the Melbourne Show, and the possibility that the Spring Carnival, including the running of the Melbourne Cup horse race, would be cancelled.

External links

• Influenza at CDC
• Influenza at World Health Organization
• Health encyclopedia entry at NHS Direct
• BioHealthBase Bioinformatics Resource Center Database of influenza sequences and related information.
• Overview of influenza at MedicineNet
• Orthomyxoviridae The Universal Virus Database of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses
• Influenza Virus Resource at the NCBI