Influenza Virus' Economic and Social Disruption to Society

Influenza virus is a unique respiratory virus disease that can cause serious economic and social damage to society. The virus diffuses through the droplet by coughing or sneezing from the infected person or by touching the infected surface. Symptoms range from mild to severe, even death. People with this virus usually develop fever, headache, tremor, muscle pain, cough, which can lead to more serious respiratory diseases such as pneumonia. People most susceptible to influenza virus are elderly people, infants, and people at risk of health and immune system.

If influenza virus, which is normally pig but not human, is detected in the human body, it is called "mutant influenza virus". For example, if a pig-derived H3N2 virus is detected in humans, that virus will be referred to as an "H3N2 mutant" virus or "H3N2v" virus. The naming convention is first published in the "Morbidity and Mortality Week" published on January 6, 2012 entitled "Update: Influenza A (H3N2) v Infection and Guidelines - 5 Countries, 2011" it was done. Swine influenza virus does not normally infect humans, but sporadic human infections of influenza virus, which usually infect pigs, have already occurred. When this happens, these viruses are called "variant viruses". Most commonly, human infection with mutant virus occurs in people who are exposed to infected pigs (for example, children near pigs or workers in the pig industry). In addition, there is proof that many people are sick after touching one or more sick pigs.

Influenza infection is caused by members of the viruses belonging to the family Orthomyxoviridae (Greek ortho means direct, Greek mucus means mucus). There are three main types of influenza A, influenza B, influenza. Here, influenza A is also called avian influenza (Collier et al., 2006). Influenza A is classified based on the diversity of the two proteins found on the surface of the virus. Hemagglutinin is a glycoprotein present on the surface of the virus, and it has 16 types of protrusions with a rod shape abbreviated as HA. Another type of glycoprotein that agglutinates erythrocytes and promotes attachment and penetration of viruses and cell receptors is a neuraminidase, abbreviated as NA, and has nine subtypes. About 80% of them are HA and the ratio of HA to NA is about 4-5. The most important subtypes that can cause widespread human outbreaks are the H1N1, H1N2 and H3N2 viruses (Richman et al., 2009).