Influenza Epidemiology: One Of The Most Serious Diseases In The USA (Term Paper Sample)

Flu Epidemiology Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Influenza Epidemiology The United States and several other countries have reported increased rates of flu recently compared with the past seasons. Researchers reported that the winter outbreak had been one of the most severe over the last 15 years with approximately 35 million people infected. In the United States alone, 1 in 15 doctors' visits has been noted to be related to the flu outbreak, which is considered as the highest since the 2009 swine flu pandemic (Knobler, 2005). According to the reports by the U.S Center for Disease Control and Prevention, flu cases are currently very active in all U.S states. Most of the U.S cases of flu, also known as influenza. Reports caused by CDC observed that the flu has caused approximately 12,000 cases of hospitalization and has caused the lives of approximate children. Despite the fact that CDC does not track adult flu deaths directly, the highest hospitalizations rates have been among people who are 65 years and older. The most memorable pandemic took place in 1918 and spread rapidly globally and eventually killing over 20 million people. The symptoms of the disease were described approximately 2,400 years ago (Honigsbaum, 2014). The historical data on influenza are not easy to report since the symptoms are the same to other respiratory diseases. The first convincing report of influenza was an outbreak that was reported in 1580 and began in Russia and spread to other parts of the world. The most lethal outbreak was reported in 1918 which lasted for about a year (Spinney, 2017). The huge death toll was caused by increased rates of infection associated with extreme severity of symptoms. The impact of influenza depends on the host factors as well as other viral proteins that enable it to reproduce in individuals' cells. Individuals who died experienced underlying health problems. Personally, the disease has caused the cost of problems because it mostly affected the younger age groups in my family. However, it has fewer impacts on the older population because they usually retain higher immunity levels from the epidemic. However, the 2009 flu epidemic provided me with unique opportunities to explore whether specific host genetic factors increased the risk of the severe disease. I noted that individuals with severe diseases were most likely to develop a particular allele that studies have suggested might influence the susceptibility to the infection (Barry, 2009). The physical effects of the disease include fever, chills, headache, dizziness, and loss of appetite. Many people experience side effects from the vaccine itself, which may include soreness or swelling where the needles are punctured. Some of the effects include a runny nose, nausea, and vomiting, weakness, as well as diarrhea (Honigsbaum, 2014). Further, individuals who experience nasal spray vaccine may experience a runny nose, headache as well as vomiting. Other effects physical effects that people usually experience include muscle aches and mild fever. However, people who experience swine flu usually experience fever, lethargy, difficulty in breathing, as well as decreased appetite. The National Center for Health Statistics uses some data collection measures that it uses to fulfill its statutory mandate. These are necessary to obtain accurate statistics on a wide range of health-related issues. The organization obtains information from birth and death records that are filed in states (Center for Disease Control, 2017). Further, it also obtains information from the national surveys that it conducts based on the samples designed to represent the population, the surveys conducted comprise of personal interviews in households and through the phone, standardized physical examination, as well as a review of facility information and patient records. There are some health disparities that are associated with influenza. Therefore, protecting vulnerable populations from the pandemic is considered as a strategic imperative in the U.S. Since the disease is highly contagious, there has been untimely response especially among the vulnerable populations. As such, this has increased the risk of infection, especially for the general population (Center for Disease Control, 2017). Further, during some of the recent disease outbreaks, the racial and minority populations were greatly affected due to some medical, epidemiological, as well as social factors. However, there have been successes in the p...