Influenza

Influenza is an (1)___, infectious, contagious disease of the respiratory tract, especially the trachea, colloquially called (2)___ or, less often, grippe. The (3)___ of a simple attack include dry (4)___, (5)___ throat, nasal obstruction and discharge, and burning of the eyes; more complex cases are characterized by (6)___, sudden onset of (7)____, headache, (8)___ of muscles and joints, and occasional gastrointestinal symptoms. In (9)___ cases, symptoms fade and (10)___ drops to normal in a few days; the (11)___ of death increases if the disease is accompanied or followed by viral pneumonia or bacterial pneumonia.

Since the 16th century, at least 31 influenza pandemics, which are very widespread (12)___, have been described. The most destructive epidemic of modern times, that of 1918, is estimated to have caused 20 million deaths; in the U.S. about 500,000 persons died, generally following the (13)___ of bacterial pneumonia.

The different types of influenza virus appear in cycles; for instance, the variant appearing in the 1978-79 season was (14)___ to the virus that was widespread during the early 1950s. Some (15)___ exists that pandemics occurring 60 to 70 years apart are caused by the same form of virus. Based on this theory, public health officials expected in 1976 that the same virus that caused the 1918 pandemic would reappear. When this form of the organism was isolated, (16)___ against it was prepared and mass inoculation was carried out in the U.S. No (17)___, however, of that form of influenza occurred.

Exercise 42. Fill in the gaps with the words given.

affecting / blood / deaths / diseases / effectively / extinction / fever / health / identification / infect / infectious / illnesses / outbreak / pandemics / physical / plague / poor / prevented / shrank / spread / temperature

Epidemics

Epidemics are outbreaks of contagious diseases (1)___ an unusually large number of people or involving an extensive geographical area. Epidemics, which may be short-lived or last for years, are brought on by the widening reach of disease-causing organisms. These organisms can be (2)___ by food or water, directly from one person to another through (3)___ contact, or by the exchange of bodily secretions such as saliva, semen, or (4)___. Insects, rodents, and other disease-carrying animals, are agents that may (5)___ human populations with epidemic diseases.

Among the diseases that have occurred in epidemic proportions throughout history are bubonic (6)___, influenza, smallpox, typhoid (7)___, tuberculosis, cholera, bacterial meningitis, and diphtheria. Occasionally, childhood (8)___ such as mumps and German measles become epidemics.

In the past, when sanitary conditions were (9)___ and diseases were little understood, epidemics occurred periodically and killed thousands of people. One of the largest epidemics ever recorded was the (10)___ of bubonic plague that raged throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia from 1347 to 1350. This epidemic, known as the Black Death in Europe, is estimated to have killed one-third of the European population. An outbreak of influenza in 1918 killed more than 20 million people around the world. Such global epidemics are commonly called (11)___. Wars and foreign invasions have traditionally provided breeding grounds for epidemic disease. Prior to the 20th century, every European war produced more (12)___ from disease than from the use of weaponry. Colonists arriving in the western hemisphere carried disease-causing organisms to which they were immune but that devastated the populations of Native Americans who had no previous exposure to these organisms. Due to the spread of disease the population of central Mexico (13)___ by an estimated 90 percent in the first 50 years of Spanish domination.

Epidemics can often be (14)___ or controlled by immunization, improved sanitation, and by other public (15)___ measures such as the use of pesticides to wipe out disease-carrying insects. During the 1960s and 1970s, the medical profession hoped that epidemic diseases were well on their way to (16)___. Poliomyelitis, an (17)___ viral disease of the central nervous system that had once been a scourge of young people in the United States, no longer appeared in significant numbers, and other diseases, including smallpox, tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera seemed almost neutralized. But since the 1970s, 30 new disease-causing (18)___, including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), Ebola hemorrhagic fever, and hepatitis C, have been identified, most of them emerging from new settlements in the rain forests of South America, Africa, and Asia. New antibiotic-resistant strains of influenza, tuberculosis, meningitis, cholera, and malaria have also appeared.

Fortunately, disease (19)___ and control establishments are now in place through most of the world and have repeatedly shown themselves capable of responding quickly and (20)___ to sudden outbreaks of disease.