Word: influenza
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...influenza virus was discovered in the early 1930s, and scientists developed a working vaccine by the 1940s, when it was first used on soldiers during World War II. In 1947, Jonas Salk, one of the vaccine's creators, began to develop a polio vaccine, which was perfected and approved...
...shot is the only vaccination that is continually updated, because influenza is a rare type of virus that is constantly changing. There are three types of the flu - Influenza A, B and C - each one with its own viral strain that replicates and changes independently from the other types. Seasonal strains of human influenza change constantly, which is why people can catch the flu multiple times. (See the Year in Health, from...
...there many other subtypes of influenza to which humans are immune. They reside mostly in birds, although every once in a while a strain will suddenly develop the ability to infect people. "A virus like that gives people no time to develop protection or immunity, so almost everyone is susceptible," says Dr. Carolyn Bridges, an influenza expert at the CDC. "When that happens, we have a pandemic...
...Influenza is a disease of modernity: the faster people travel around the world, the easier it is for the virus to spread. There's no evidence of influenza among Native Americans until after Europeans visited North America. Pandemic outbreaks occur about once every hundred years, although it's hard track outbreaks that occurred before the 18th century due to incomplete medical records. The disease hits big cities first - because that's where people generally travel - and then spreads to surrounding areas. The last major pandemic occurred in 1918 when an Influenza A strain jumped from birds to humans and killed...
...entire U.S. population. Unfortunately, several hundred people developed Guillain-Barré syndrome, an illness characterized by nerve damage and paralysis, after receiving the vaccination. The Ford family tried to alleviate fears by televising their flu shots, and in the end 40 million Americans were vaccinated for a strand of influenza that only had a handful of documented cases of human infection. (Read "Does the Flu Vaccine Really Protect Kids...