Swine Influenza and Panic
Panic is a word that describes a specific type of human behaviour. Behaviour is an identifiable set of acts, performed by and individual or by a community of individuals. A community is a set of individuals, whether they are human or not.
Panicking is considered an acceptable behaviour, when you can't do anything else.
Influenza is a common denomination for a multitude of different viruses. Viruses are beings that are so simple that they might not even be called "living", even though they have functions similar to living organisms, such as the ability to reproduce themselves. Viruses require host cells to be able to reproduce themselves, but it is possible that the virus damages the host cell while interacting with it. The influenza virus has strains that affect swines, birds, humans and other types of animals. The "swine flu" that is causing news nowadays is an unusual mix of viruses, and it has swine, avian and human influenza's information on its RNA. This unusual mix is possible when a host cell is infected by two or more types of influenza, and is called reassortment. It is not common that a specific influenza swine or avian strain infects human hosts, but swines are susceptible to influenza viruses that affect both avian and human hosts. Therefore, they may act as mixing vessels for the genetic material.
The swine flu is as severe as other types of influenza, but its severity is not worse than that other flus. The deaths said to be caused by swine flu are usually caused by pneumonia, in what is called co-infection. Co-infection means that the influenza weakens the host, and then he isn't strong enough to fight the opportunistic pneumonia or other infections. This is also true for most of the influenza strains out there.
The panic caused by the mass media around the swine flu is neither useful nor necessary. However, this panic might have spread so fast because the outbreak is happening mainly on developed countries.
Panicking is considered an acceptable behaviour, when you can't do anything else.
Influenza is a common denomination for a multitude of different viruses. Viruses are beings that are so simple that they might not even be called "living", even though they have functions similar to living organisms, such as the ability to reproduce themselves. Viruses require host cells to be able to reproduce themselves, but it is possible that the virus damages the host cell while interacting with it. The influenza virus has strains that affect swines, birds, humans and other types of animals. The "swine flu" that is causing news nowadays is an unusual mix of viruses, and it has swine, avian and human influenza's information on its RNA. This unusual mix is possible when a host cell is infected by two or more types of influenza, and is called reassortment. It is not common that a specific influenza swine or avian strain infects human hosts, but swines are susceptible to influenza viruses that affect both avian and human hosts. Therefore, they may act as mixing vessels for the genetic material.
The swine flu is as severe as other types of influenza, but its severity is not worse than that other flus. The deaths said to be caused by swine flu are usually caused by pneumonia, in what is called co-infection. Co-infection means that the influenza weakens the host, and then he isn't strong enough to fight the opportunistic pneumonia or other infections. This is also true for most of the influenza strains out there.
The panic caused by the mass media around the swine flu is neither useful nor necessary. However, this panic might have spread so fast because the outbreak is happening mainly on developed countries.
Comments
Post a Comment