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PostHeaderIcon What Is Pandemic, Epidemic And Another One Which I Cant Remember?

6:58 PM | Posted by Swine Flu Info Blog | Edit Post
Can somebody help to explain the different between them and the easy way to remember? And with regards to the recent swine flu, what does the H1 and N1 refer to? is it enzyme produce by the virus to attack/attach to our cell surface?
Thank you very much.
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3 comments:

xbrianna said...

I know that pandemic means it's gone worldwide.

May 19, 2009 at 6:58 PM
TraceyDo… said...

The "H" stands for hemagglutinin and the "N" stands for neuraminidase. All flus have H & N, the numbers stand for the strain of H or N.
Pandemic: Outbreak over a wide geographical area.
Endemic: Native to one certain area. (SARS was endemic in China)

May 19, 2009 at 6:58 PM
spuzzdaw said...

Does no one even bother t trying to find the answer out for themselves these days?
Epidemic:
In epidemiology, an epidemic (from Greek epi- upon + demos people) occurs when new cases of a certain disease occur in a given human population, during a given period, substantially exceed what is "expected," based on recent experience (the number of new cases in the population during a specified period of time is called the "incidence rate"). (An epizootic is the analogous circumstance within an animal population.) In recent usages, the disease is not required to be communicable; examples include cancer or heart disease.
Pandemic:
A pandemic (from Greek παν pan all + δήμος demos people) is an epidemic of infectious disease that spreads through populations across a large region; for instance a continent, or even worldwide.
The 2009 flu outbreak in humans that is widely known as "swine flu" is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that was produced by reassortment from one strain of human influenza virus, one strain of avian influenza virus, and two separate strains of SIV. The origin of this new strain is unknown, and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports that this strain has not been isolated in pigs.[2] It passes with apparent ease from human to human, an ability attributed to an as-yet unidentified mutation.[3] This 2009 H1N1 strain causes the normal symptoms of influenza, such as fever, coughing and headache.
Influenza A virus strains are categorized according to two viral proteins, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). All influenza A viruses contain hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, but the structure of these proteins differs from strain to strain due to rapid genetic mutation in the viral genome. Influenza A virus strains are assigned an H number and an N number based on which forms of these two proteins the strain contains.
You could have easily found this information yourself if you had bothered to look. Don't ask for other people to spoon feed you.

May 19, 2009 at 6:58 PM

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