BIOL 1002 Chapter : The Hidden World Of Microbes
Document Summary
Can be either single-stranded or double stranded dna or rna: capsid = protein coat which surrounds and protects genome, envelope = membrane (phospholipid bilayer) which surrounds the capsid, hijack cells, highly specific for organism it infects. "swine flu" not really: the current swine flu is actually a virus that consists of 2 avian, 4 swine, and 2 human origins (total of 8 ssrna). It is "new": we have no natural immunityon first exposure our body"s immune system responds slowly and sometime not quick enough to survive. Past pandemics: 1918: spanish flu, approximately 675,000 deaths from the flu occurred in the u. s. alone. 1/3 world infected, 28% of u. s. h1n1: 1957: asian flu, 69,800 people in the u. s. died. The number of deaths between september 1968 and march 1969 for this pandemic was 33,800, making it the mildest pandemic in the 20th century.
