Entry
Reader's guide
Entries A-Z
Subject index
Avian Flu
Avian influenza (AI), or “bird flu,” is a contagious respiratory disease of animals caused by influenza viruses that typically infect birds. While AI viruses are characteristically species-specific, they can acquire the ability to infect humans. One AI virus, classified as the highly pathogenic H5N1, has affected more than 80 species of wild birds, led to the death or destruction of millions of domestic birds, and caused illness in hundreds of humans, killing more than half. Most humans have become ill with the H5N1 virus through close contact with infected birds. However, public health officials are concerned that the virus could develop into a form that could easily spread from human to human, creating an outbreak of illness that could rapidly spread around the world (a pandemic). In response, widespread efforts by national and international health organizations have been instituted to prepare for and to mitigate the potential impacts of a pandemic influenza outbreak, including attempts to use communication to alert and educate the public. Because of the potential threat to humans, news media often pay close attention to AI developments. To better understand the threat of AI, this entry explores the basic science of influenza, the impact of AI on wild and domestic birds and on humans, its potential to cause a pandemic, and what is being done in response.
Influenza Basics
The term influenza is thought to be derived from the Italian word for “influence.” Influenza viruses belong to the Orthomyxoviridae family of RNA viruses, which are classified into three groups, known as Types A, B, and C. Type A viruses cause infections in birds, humans, and some other mammals. Type B viruses typically infect only humans, while type C viruses, which are rare, infect both humans and pigs.
Influenza A viruses are further classified into subtypes based on structural proteins projecting from their surfaces like spikes. One type of spike contains the glycoprotein hemagglutinin (H), an enzyme that helps the virus attach to and penetrate host cells. The other type of spike contains the enzyme neuraminidase (N), which helps the virus enter the host cell and to exit after replication. There are 16 different types of H and 9 different types of N known, creating 144 possible combinations. Subtypes of viruses are identified by their particular combination of H and N proteins. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), human infections have been caused mainly by influenza A viruses containing the H1, H2, and H3 and N1 and N2 proteins, although only some subtypes (that is, H1N1, H1N2, and H3N2) are currently in general circulation among people.
Animals (including humans) can acquire protective immunities against influenza viruses by developing antibodies against these H and N proteins. Such antibodies are also the basis of influenza vaccines. However, mutations in viruses can cause chemical alterations in these proteins, yielding new strains of a virus that existing antibodies do not recognize. As a result, relatively minor variations (antigenic drift) in a virus can leave people vulnerable to getting the flu more than once. Consequently, influenza A and B viruses cause seasonal flu epidemics every year. Because viruses are constantly changing, there is no universally effective vaccine for influenza. Therefore, yearly seasonal flu vaccinations must be updated to match changes in the currently circulating flu viruses.
...
- Associations and Organizations
- Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow
- American Association for Public Opinion Research
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- American Medical Association
- American Medical Writers Association
- Association for Communication Excellence
- Center for Science in the Public Interest
- Council for the Advancement of Science Writing
- Environmental Defense Fund
- ETC Group
- Greenpeace
- International Science Journalism Associations
- National Association of Science Writers
- Physicians for Social Responsibility
- Public Communication of Science and Technology
- Royal Society
- SciDev.Net
- Scientists' Institute for Public Information
- Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
- Sigma Xi
- Society for Risk Analysis
- Society for Technical Communication
- Society of Environmental Journalists
- Union of Concerned Scientists
- Audiences, Opinions, and Effects
- Active Audiences and Science
- Attentive Public
- Audiences for Science
- Children's Television and Science
- Communicating Science to Children
- Gender Representations of Scientists
- Health Literacy
- Interpretive Communities
- Knowledge Gap Hypothesis
- Popular Science and Formal Education
- Public Understanding of Research
- Public Understanding of Science
- Role Models in Science
- Science Indicators, History of the NSB Project on
- Science Literacy
- Scientist—Journalist Relations
- Surveys
- Technological Literacy
- Trust and Attitudes
- Challenges, Issues, and Controversies
- Abortion
- Alien Abduction
- Alternative Medicine
- Asteroid Impacts
- Bioterrorism
- Climate Change, Communicating
- Cloning
- Colonizing Other Worlds
- Creationism
- Digital Divide
- Drug Advertising
- Food Irradiation
- Intelligent Design in Public Discourse
- Invasive Species
- Maverick Science and Journalism
- NIMBY (“Not In My Back Yard”)
- Nuclear Power
- Nuclear Waste
- Nuclear Weapons
- Pseudoscience
- Scientist—Journalist Conflicts
- Skepticism
- Stem Cell Controversy
- UFOlogy
- Vaccines, Fear of
- Changing Awareness, Opinion, and Behavior
- Alcohol, Risk Communication for
- Anti-Drug Campaigns
- Anti-Smoking Campaigns
- Breast Cancer Communication
- Cancer Prevention and Risk Communication
- Communication Campaigns in Health and Environment
- Computer-Tailored Messages
- Evidence-Based Medicine
- Fear Appeals
- Food Safety
- Health Communication and the Internet
- Health Communication, Overview
- Highway Safety
- HIV/AIDS Prevention and Communication
- Resource Mobilization
- Social Marketing
- Critical Influences and Events
- Global and International Aspects
- Africa, Science in
- Australia, Science in
- Canada, Science Communication in
- East Asia, Science Communication in
- Europe, Research System in
- European Space Agency
- India, Science and Science Communication in
- Latin America, Science Communication in
- Mexico, Science Communication in
- National Development, Science and Technology in
- Government Agencies (U.S.)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.
- Department of Agriculture, U.S.
- Department of Energy, U.S.
- Environmental Protection Agency, U.S.
- Food and Drug Administration, U.S.
- House Science Committee, U.S.
- National Academies, U.S.
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S.
- National Institutes of Health, U.S.
- National Science Foundation, U.S.
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S.
- Office of Science and Technology Policy, U.S.
- Office of Technology Assessment, U.S.
- Public Health Service, U.S.
- Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, U.S.
- Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, U.S.
- Surgeon General, U.S.
- History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science
- Actor-Network Theory
- Deductive Logic
- Inductive Logic
- Invisible College
- Land Grant System, U.S.
- Logical Positivism
- Peer Review
- Postmodernism and Science
- Science and Politics
- Science, Technology, and Society Studies
- Scientific Consensus
- Scientific Ethos
- Scientific Journal, History of
- Scientific Method
- Scientific Societies
- Technological Determinism
- Tenure System
- Two Cultures
- Understanding Expertise
- Visible Scientist
- Important Figures
- Asimov, Isaac
- Attenborough, David
- Carson, Rachel
- Carver, George Washington
- Clarke, Arthur C.
- Crick, Francis
- Darwin, Charles
- Dawkins, Richard
- Dewey, John
- Einstein, Albert
- Feynman, Richard
- Franklin, Benjamin
- Galilei, Galileo
- Gould, Stephen Jay
- Hawking, Stephen
- Kuhn, Thomas
- Latour, Bruno
- McClintock, Barbara
- Mead, Margaret
- Mendel, Gregor
- Merton, Robert K.
- Muir, John
- Nelkin, Dorothy
- Nye, Bill
- Oppenheimer, J. Robert
- Popper, Karl
- Sagan, Carl
- Snow, C. P.
- Teller, Edward
- Venter, J. Craig
- Watson, James D.
- Journal Publications
- Key Cases and Current Trends
- Agricultural Biotechnology
- Alternative Energy, Overview
- Architecture, Sustainable
- Astrobiology
- Astronomy, Public Communication of
- Avian Flu
- Biofuels
- Bioinformatics
- Bovine Somatotropin (BST or BGH)
- Fuel Cell Technology
- Gene
- Gene Therapy
- Holography
- Low-Level Radiation
- Nanotechnology
- Nutrigenomics
- Nutrition and Media
- Obesity Epidemic
- Pandemics, Origins of
- Recombinant DNA
- Reproductive Medicine
- Satellites, Science of
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
- Solar Energy
- String Theory
- Sustainability
- Synthetic Biology and Genomics
- Toxicogenomics
- Wind Power
- Law, Policy, Ethics, and Beliefs
- Big Science
- Bioethicists as Sources
- Censorship in Science
- Clean Air Act
- Clean Water Act
- Community “Right to Know”
- Conflicts of Interest in Science
- Embargo System
- Endangered Species Act
- Environmental Impact Statements
- Environmental Justice
- Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI)
- Eugenics
- Food Libel Laws
- Gene Patenting
- Institutional Review Board
- Nanotechnology, Regulation of
- Planetary Protection
- Precautionary Principle
- Religion, Science, and Media
- Research Ethics, Overview
- Risk Analysis
- Risks and Benefits
- Science Communication and Indigenous North America
- Social Justice
- Technology Assessment
- Toxic Substances Regulation
- Major Infrastructural Initiatives
- Practices, Strategies, and Tools
- Professional Roles and Careers
- Agricultural Journalism
- Beat Reporting
- Career Paths, Medical Writing/Medical Journalism
- Career Paths, Science/Environmental Journalism
- Crisis Communication
- Disaster Coverage
- Environmental Journalism
- Freelancing
- Government Public Information
- Medical Journalism
- Public Relations and Science
- Scientist—Journalist Relations
- Social and Behavioral Science Reporting
- Technical Communication
- Weather Reporting
- Public Engagement Approaches
- Theory and Research
- Agenda Setting and Science
- Conversation and Science Communication
- Cultivation Theory and Science
- Deficit Model
- Diffusion of Innovations
- Digital Rhetoric and Science
- Discourse Analysis and Science
- Evaluation of Science Communication
- Framing and Priming in Science Communication
- Information Seeking and Processing
- Information Society
- Information Subsidies
- Opinion Leaders and Opinion Leadership
- Optimistic Bias
- Planned Behavior, Theory of
- Psychometric Paradigm
- Rhetoric of Medicine
- Rhetoric of Science
- Social Amplification of Risk Framework
- Social Epistemology
- Spiral of Silence and Science
- Third-Person Effect
- Uncertainty in Science Communication
- Venues and Channels
- Internet, History of
- Media Convergence
- Newspaper Science Pages
- Online Media and the Sciences
- Popular Science, Overview
- Science and the Giant Screen
- Science Centers and Science Museums
- Science Circus
- Science Documentaries
- Science Fiction
- Science in Advertising
- Science in Magazines
- Science in the Movies
- Science in Virtual Worlds
- Science Magazines
- Science on Radio
- Science Shops
- Science Theater
- Scientific Publishing, Overview
- Television Science
- Loading...
Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL
-
Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life -
Read modern, diverse business cases
-
Explore hundreds of books and reference titles
Read next
More like this
Sage Recommends
We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.
Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches