Word: influenza
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...influenza outbreak, the symptoms vary widely. Some specialists in epidemics and infectious diseases are convinced that the virus labeled A2-Hong Kong-68 is proving more variable than most preceding strains. For one thing, many victims describe symptoms that seem conspicuously different from those of the patient next door. One man may suffer a three-day bout of sniffling, coughing, headache and muscle twinges, with little fever, while his neighbor may run a high fever, return to work after a miserable week in bed, and promptly suffer a disabling relapse...
...plan to put everyone who has the influenza in the infirmary--only if he has a complication," Farnsworth said. "There's no way during an epidemic period to care for everyone in an infirmary or a hospital," he added...
...formulate such a theory, admits Gajdusek, is to call into question much of the traditional thinking of virologists. Generations of researchers have been accustomed to thinking of viruses as microbes that behave somewhat predictably. Typically, as in the case of measles, German measles, chicken pox, the common cold and influenza-of the Hong Kong variety, or whatever-they seem to appear from nowhere, spend a few days, or at most two or three weeks, incubating in the victim's body, then cause a brief, feverish illness...
...their laboratory experts, using ultrarefined microtechniques, began closing in on the culprit microbes. No doubt many of the illnesses were caused by assorted viruses that have no common names and produce indistinguishable illnesses. But it was almost certain that most of the symptoms resulted from the epidemic spread of influenza viruses. Of these, there are two main types, A and B. The B type appears to be stable and causes outbreaks of moderate severity every two to four years. On the other hand the A types are highly unstable and mutate unpredictably...
...Because influenza is seldom fatal for a person who is in generally good health before he catches it, some authorities have described Hong Kong flu as a "mild illness." That is highly misleading. All types of influenza virus are about equal in their ability to cause severe illness. What varies enormously-and with it, the ultimate severity of the disease-is the individual victim's constitution and resistance. Some otherwise healthy people are especially susceptible to disabling illness that lasts several weeks. Others can throw off the flu after a week or so, with perhaps half that time spent...