0
Cold and Flu
Questions and answers about the "Common Cold"; symptoms in the upper respiratory tract like sneezing, scratchy throat, and runny nose, but adults don't typically have fevers. Colds are usually caused by the rhinovirus (up to 40% of colds), or Coronaviruses (about 20%), but there are more than 200 viruses that can cause the common cold. Also questions about the seasonal flu, also called "regular flu", caused mostly by Type A and Type B Influenza viruses. Flu starts with similar symptoms as a cold only it hits faster and harder and usually includes fever in adults. Although the "stomach flu" is a common term, it is not a real diagnosis. The proper medical term for stomach flu is gastroenteritis (an intestinal disease, sometimes viral but also bacterial), it is often mistaken for influenza because the flu can sometimes include vomiting and diarrhea.
4,331 Questions
What are the uses for viruses?
Viruses are used to kill cancer cells
Viruses are used for anti-ageing
Viruses are Used to Grow more energy efficient Batteries
What can happen if you eat food that contains germs?
Eating food that contains germs can lead to foodborne illnesses such as food poisoning. Common symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps. In severe cases, it can result in dehydration and require medical attention.
What is the difference between bacterial intoxication versus bacterial infection?
Bacterial intoxication is caused by ingesting toxins produced by bacteria in contaminated food, leading to symptoms of food poisoning. Bacterial infection occurs when harmful bacteria invade and multiply within the body, causing symptoms such as fever, inflammation, and other systemic effects.
NO! They dont sneeze, but if they have a virus they arent eye grabbing and have less color. im dumb.
Of course plants sneeze try it just use pepper
Yes, influenza still occurs every year, typically during the winter months. It is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses and can lead to mild to severe symptoms, and occasionally even death, particularly in vulnerable populations such as the elderly, young children, and individuals with underlying health conditions. Vaccination is an effective way to prevent influenza and its complications.
Does a virus need a host cell?
Yes, they implant their DNA into a cell. The DNA tells the cell to replicate the virus inside itself. When the cell is full of the virus, it explodes, releasing viruses all around the targeted area.
What does a virus ultimately do to the host cell?
Viruses hijack the host cell's machinery to replicate their own genetic material, produce new virus particles, and eventually cause the host cell to burst, releasing the new viruses to infect other cells. This process ultimately leads to cell death and can cause harm to the larger organism.
Influenza is indeed aerobic because it can be transmitted through the air
No, influenza is an infectious respiratory illness caused by the influenza virus. It spreads easily from person to person through respiratory droplets when infected individuals cough, sneeze, or talk.
What kingdom is the common cold virus in?
The common cold virus, or rhinovirus, belongs to the kingdom Viruses. Viruses are not classified under any kingdom in traditional biological classification systems because they are considered acellular and do not fit the criteria for living organisms.
Does the sun help a common cold?
UV rays can destroy some types of viruses on common surfaces. Sunlight can help your mood and, in turn, make a cold feel less miserable. Too much sun and it can make things worse by elevating the temperature, drying out mucous tissues and causing fluid loss from heat, sweating and sunburn. Like nearly everything, sunlight can be both good for you and it can be bad for you. Balance is key. Drink extra fluids if you are in the sun and avoid long exposures.
Influenza is unicellular or multicellular?
Influenza is not a cell, it is a respiratory disease caused by a type of viruses, called influenza viruses. Viruses are not cells, they are sub-microscopic organisms that are non-living and disease-causing in humans, animals, and plants as well as in some bacteria.
Yes. The US is weakening form a financial point of view. The national debt is going up with no chance that it can ever be repaid. We have runaway inflation the dollar in only worth about 8 cents, and going down all the time. Remember when it only cost 3 cents to mail a letter. Now it is 42 cents. We are in a Depression. Even one hundred year old companies like Ford and GM are about to go under. The US could collapse like the USSR. I know people think that could never happen. Well look what happened to the Roman Empire. They though that would never happen.
Is influenza single strand or double strand RNA?
It is single stranded RNA. Importantly, it is also a segmented genome that allows it to have large genetic diversity.
In a weak mayor system the executive power is held by the?
In a weak mayor system, the executive power is typically held by an appointed city manager or by the city council as a whole, rather than by the mayor. The mayor's role is often ceremonial or limited to presiding over council meetings.
How does a new strain of a virus form?
Through mutation of an existing virus into new forms. Usually, there is mutation of the protein coating of the virus that results in a new strain. The new strain may or may not be infectious to the same group or organism that was vulnerable to the original virus strain.
For a case example of how new viruses form, see the related question below that explains in detail what caused the new 2009 Pandemic Swine Flu virus. Also see the related question about the Lytic Cycle, which is the process that viruses use to attach to cells and reproduce.
Who made the first influenza vaccine?
The first vaccine is the virus cowpox (the latin word for cow is vacca, hence vaccine). It produces a very mild and harmless infection in people but protects them from smallpox, one of the most deadly diseases in history.
Today, smallpox has been eradicated from the wild due to a worldwide effort to vaccinate enough people to wipe it out.
What is the genus and species category for influenza?
it is a negative single strand RNA virus of family orthomyxoviridae having four group: influenza A, influenza B, influenza C, and thogoto virus. containing 7to 8 segments of linear rna with a genome length b/w 12,000 to 15,000.
Why do people get sick so fast?
Generally a person is sick well before symptoms show, so it is not as fast as you would think. Symptoms will show more rapidly b/c your body is trying to defend itself against an invader. It only seems very fast because it is a bigger change than what we are used too.
How big is an individual virion of influenza virus?
Approximately 130 nanometers for average. Size varies by specific virus, however, and influenza viruses can range from 10 to 300 nanometers. The nanometer is equal to one billionth of a meter, or one millionth of a millimeter.
They are about 1/100th the size of bacteria. Most are "nano" size and too miniscule to be seen with a regular light microscope, so electron microscopes need to be used to visualize the virus particles.
What is hemolytic streptococcus?
Hemolytic streptococcus is a group of bacteria that can cause various infections in humans, including strep throat, skin infections, and invasive diseases such as pneumonia and sepsis. These bacteria can be classified into different groups based on their hemolytic properties (alpha, beta, or gamma) when grown on blood agar plates. Beta-hemolytic streptococci are known for producing toxins that cause the breakdown of red blood cells.
Why is it easy for a virus to mutate?
Viruses mutate easily because they have a high mutation rate due to errors in their replication process. Additionally, viruses have short generation times which allows them to quickly accumulate mutations. Mutations can help viruses evade the immune system, adapt to new hosts or environments, and become more infectious.
Does Hot weather or cold weather cause more deaths?
Which poses the greater risk of death to humans: hot weather, or cold?
Statistical evidence shows that there are twice as many deaths in cold weather than in hot weather (but the weather is not necessarily the direct cause).
"Heat is more likely to kill an American than an earthquake, and thunderstorms kill more than hurricanes do, according to a 'death map' published on Tuesday." So reports Reuters, in a December 17, 2010 story on researchers who compiled the county-by-county look at what natural disasters kill Americans.
The Reuters story continues:
Heat and drought caused 19.6 percent of total deaths from natural hazards, with summer thunderstorms causing 18.8 percent and winter weather causing 18.1 percent, the team at the University of South Carolina found.
Earthquakes, wildfires and hurricanes combined were responsible for fewer than 5 percent of all hazard deaths.
Writing in BioMed Central's International Journal of Health Geographics, they said they hoped to dispel some myths about what the biggest threats to life and limb are. "According to our results, the answer is heat," Susan Cutter and Kevin Borden of the University of South Carolina wrote in their report, based on data gathered from 1970 to 2004.
But the conclusions of Cutter and Borden conflict with evidence that cold weather is a much bigger killer than hot weather (excluding the tropics, of course).
In an article entitled, "The impact of global warming on health and mortality," published in the Southern Medical Journal in 2004, W.R. Keatinge and G.C. Donaldson of Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of London note: "Cold-related deaths are far more numerous than heat-related deaths in the United States, Europe, and almost all countries outside the tropics, and almost all of them are due to common illnesses that are increased by cold."
CO2 Science summarizes the Southern Medical Journalstudy:
Keatinge and Donaldson report that coronary and cerebral thrombosis account for about half of all cold-related deaths, and that respiratory diseases account for approximately half the rest. With respect to the first of these sets of problems, they say that cold stress causes an increase in arterial thrombosis "because the blood becomes more concentrated, and so more liable to clot during exposure to cold." The sequence of events, as they describe it, is that "the body's first adjustment to cold stress is to shut down blood flow to the skin to conserve body heat," which "produces an excess of blood in central parts of the body," and that to correct for this effect, "salt and water are moved out from the blood into tissue spaces," leaving behind "increased levels of red cells, white cells, platelets and fibrinogen" that lead to increased viscosity of the blood and a greater risk of clotting.
Keatinge and Donaldson report that "even in climates as warm as southern Europe or North Carolina [USA], cold weather causes more deaths than hot weather." They also note that "rising temperatures could reduce overall mortality rates."
Another important study by two UK health bodies, the Department of Health (DoH) and the Health Protection Agency (HPA) released this year provides additional evidence that cold weather is by far the greater threat to health and life. However, the media spin on the DOH/HPA report, Health Effects of Climate Change in the UK 2008, presented headlines that completely contradicted the findings of the report. "Climate change soon could kill thousands in UK," declared the Guardian.
British writer Rob Lyons summarized important data from the DOH/HPA report:
Actual experience over nearly 40 years suggests good news overall. For example, "mean annual heat-related mortality did not rise as summers warmed from 1971 to 2003." That means we're able to adapt to warmer temperatures. Indeed, the authors note: "Heat-related mortalities are substantial throughout Europe, but the hot summers in southern Europe cause little more mortality than the milder summers of more northerly regions." If we're prepared for warm weather and we take simple precautions, then heat shouldn't be a problem.
So, for different UK regions, the authors estimate the following decline for hot weather-related fatalities (cases per million of population, 1971-2003):
• South-east England from 258 to 193 in 2003;
• Rest of England and Wales from 188 to 93;
• Scotland from 125 (in 1974) to only eight in 2003.
Meanwhile, deaths due to cold weather fell dramatically - overall, by more than 33 per cent. Far more people are affected by cold snaps than by heatwaves, so the change is more significant than for hot-weather deaths. Here is how cold-weather deaths fell between 1971 and 2003:
• South-east England from 9,174 to 5,903;
• Rest of England and Wales from 9,222 to 6,088;
• Scotland from 9,751 in 1974 to 6,166 in 2003.
As Rob Lyons notes, the declining mortality rates and the concomitant temperature increases should be cause for rejoicing, not hand-wringing:
We should be shouting this from the rooftops: far fewer people are dying because of the temperature than in the past. Milder winters are far more important than hotter summers in achieving this, along with other changes to how people live....
The BBC, gave the story a more balanced headline: "Global warming 'may cut deaths.'"
The elderly die in inadequately heated homes. People get skull fractures from falls on the ice. Men die of heart attacks while shoveling snow. People get colds, flu, pneumonia, and other respiratory diseases. Infectious diseases proliferate. Hospital admissions rise.
"From 1979 to 1997, extreme cold killed roughly twice as many Americans as heat waves, according to Indur Goklany of the U.S. Department of the Interior," Singer and Avery write. "Cold spells, in other words, are twice as dangerous to our health as hot weather."
They continue:
Heat is becoming a less important factor in human health as air conditioning spreads. Heat-related mortality in 28 major U.S. cities from 1964 through 1998 dropped from 41 deaths per day in the 1960s to only 10.5 per day in the 1990s.
A large cohort study comparing households with and without air conditioning in the early 1980s found a 41 percent lower death rate for the air-conditioned households during hot months....
In Germany, heat waves were found to reduce overall mortality rates slightly, while cold spells led to a significant increase in deaths.
The German authors say the longer a cold spell lasts, the more pronounced the excess mortality - and the higher death rates seem to persist for weeks.
Hot spells, in contrast, cause a short surge in deaths followed by a period of lower death rates that persists for more than two weeks.
Now that the cold weather is here, we should remember that more Americans die during the cold months than at any other time of year.
The figure below, which is based on data from the US National Center for Health Statistics for 2001-2007, shows that on average 7,200 Americans die each day during the months of December, January, February and March, compared to the average 6,400 who die daily during the rest of the year. On this basis, there were 95,000 "excess" deaths during the 121 days in the cold months (December to March, assuming a non-leap year).
So bundle up if you go outside, and keep warm indoors as well.
___________
However, it is not the cold weather directly that kills the "extra" people in winter, although some "extra" does happen in extremely cold weather just as people die in the extremely hot weather. A bigger cause of increased winter deaths in the US is death caused by influenza during the "flu season" and pneumonia and other infectious diseases that are more common in the colder times of the year as people stay together in more concentrated groups and indoors. In the US typically 36,000 people die of the flu each year in the flu season. Deaths from overexertion and heart attacks or strokes from shoveling snow, etc. must also be factored in. More winter travel accidents and other accidents caused by ice and snow add to the count and deaths from fires and carbon monoxide and other complications from use of furnaces and space heaters all need to be considered.
Why does a virus need the host cell?
Viruses do not have the capability to reproduce. They are simply a strand of DNA or RNA, inside a protein coat. They infect a host cell and hijack the host cell's reproductive faculty, creating more viruses.
The incubation period for the flu virus is typically between 1-4 days, with symptoms usually appearing within 2 days of exposure. However, it can vary depending on the individual's immune system and other factors. It is important to seek medical advice if you suspect you have been exposed to the flu virus.
