BIOL 2905 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: 1918 Flu Pandemic, Herd Immunity, Case Fatality Rate
Document Summary
Not by drugs but by using the immune system. Viruses are a part of ecology as with cells. Best way to deal with viruses: activating our body naturally (infection) or activating our immunity by vaccination. We all live and survive with bacteria and viruses. Lake water has thousands of bacteria and viruses if we drink it. We carry viral genome copies in our genomes. 8% of our genomes are made up of viral sequences. When we duplicate our genome, we duplicate the viral genome. Infect bacterial cells as well; reduces bacterial load . Vast majority of viruses that infect us have little or no impact on our health. Spanish flu pandemic 1918: 40-50 million deaths worldwide (more, not including china and india"s deaths) Highly infective and lethal <6% died, but almost everyone was infected. Stopped ww1 because of the amount of people being killed by the virus. Historical impact equivalent to all wars/ revolutions/ economic crisis combined.
