COMMUNICATION STRATEGY FOR PRECAUTION DURING A PANDEMIC OUTBREAK

Influenza

“Influenza” is a common dreadful viral infection which has its prevalence in the history of world pandemics. The exact reason of origin of the virus is still a debatable issue, however, the magnitude and the severity of an influenza outbreak is a ruthless public health challenge. The widely remembered influenza outbreak in 1918 is a classic model of influenza epidemics affecting 20 to 40 percent of the world global population. As stated by (Brammer et al, 2002), the influenza virus capitulates its dormant form during the late winter having high mortality rate initially affecting the respiratory tract of the humans, ideally Throat, Lungs and Nose. In USA, the hospitalization rate during a influenza outbreak is over 1,00,000 individuals which kills over 30,000 individuals in an average year (Simonsen et al, 2000 and Thompson et al 2003).The dreadful aspect of this viral outbreak is that it is difficult to predict the nature and timing of its next potential outbreak leaving the researchers to depend upon the past genetic and historical epidemiological evidences in order to identify a possible threat(Layne et al , 2001 ; Taubenberger and Layne , 2001).The nature of its pandemic occurrence pre-dominantly has its existence every 10 to 50 years during several centuries alone targeting children under 15 yrs of age with highest rate of infection.(Beveridge, 1977, Cox and Subbarao ,2000;Wright and Webster, 2001).

Influenza Types, Sub-types and Strains:

INFLUENZA STRAINS	SUB-TYPES		SYMPTOMS	MORTALITY RATE	DEATH RATE
INFLUENZA TYPE ‘A’	-H1N1 -H2N2 -H3N2 -H5N1 -H7N7 -H1N2 -H9N2 -H7N2	‘A’ type of virus strain (H5N1) is also known as bird flu which is highly pathogenic and has the capability of causing more than one influenza pandemic due to its genomic mutation capability. Highly existing forms are transcribed in avian genomes.	-Fever -Cough -Cold -Muscle aches -Conjunctivitis -Pneumonia	Very High	60%
INFLUENZA TYPE ‘B’	- None	This type of strain is a sub- type of influenza virus which can cause epidemics but not Pandemics. It is a contagious respiratory infection having the capability to mutate and produce different strains.	-Headache -Muscle ache -Mild frequent -Fever -Common   Cold	Medium	25%
INFLUENZA TYPE ‘C’	- None	This type of strain is the mildest of all types of strains never connected to any form of epidemics and is just a type of mild respiratory infection.	-Common Cold	Very Low	2%

Source: http://www.medicinenet.com/influenza/article.htm