Ayora-Talavera G

Language: Spanish
References: 0
Page: 57-61
PDF size: 26.20 Kb.

ABSTRACT

During the last 400 years, influenza epidemics have been recorded worldwide. Epidemics since the 16th century in England and the 18th century in the USA, are recognizable as influenza, even in the abscence of precise knowledge of their causative agent. The 1918 influenza pandemic was the largest in recent history, causing a total of 20 million deaths worldwide. Since 1957 and 1968 influenza pandemic shave killed a million people. While the relationship between the antigenic change and epidemic is complex, presumably involving multiple factors atributable to the host as well as to the viruses. Antigenic drift and shift are the most readily identifiable markers of epidemic potential.