Infectious Diseases and Recent Development

Influenza Pandemics in the Last Century

The world is now undergoing a global pandemic. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The disease has since spread worldwide, leading to an ongoing pandemic.

The emergence of influenza “A” virus subtypes had resulted in three pandemics occurrence and are all spread around the world within a year after being detected.

Influenza “A” virus does not typically infect humans. However, infection in humans was first documented during an outbreak of the avian flu among poultry in Hong Kong in 1957 when the virus caused severe respiratory illness in 18 people, 6 of whom died.

However, till now, there has been no evidence that the H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus is capable of efficient human-to-human transmission. Health officials continue to watch over the situation closely for evidence of H5N1 transmission between people.

This impending infectious disease is projected by scientists to be the fourth pandemic in the last 100 years. In this blog, we will put our focus on COVID-19, and the recent outbreaks such as Zika, MERS-CoV, H7N9, and Ebola.