Nurses Helping Nurses
allnurses Network: Central | Jobs | Books | Newsletter
allnurses: A Nursing Community for Nurses
Home General News Blogs Articles Students Region Specialty Degrees F.A.Q.
Pandemic Flu Forum /

Being older is a good defense against 2009 H1N1 influenza virus



Did You Know?
allnurses is the largest community for nurses on the web. We now have over 388,754 members! Join today to network with other nurses, laugh, share, and much more.

Nov 03, 2009 03:55 AM

Being older is a good defense against 2009 H1N1 influenza virus

by indigo girl allnurses Guide

Originally Posted by www.virology.ws
Why is the incidence of infection with 2009 H1N1 influenza highest among 5-24 year olds, and lowest in those over 65 years of age? Were the oldsters previously infected with a related influenza virus, or is there another explanation?

The sera of individuals born in the early part of the 20th century have antibodies that block infection with the 2009 H1N1 virus. We also know that antibodies that prevent infection with recently circulating seasonal H1N1 viruses do not react with pandemic H1N1 strains. These findings may partly explain the lower incidence of influenza this year in individuals greater than 65 years of age (illustrated).

But other factors might also be responsible for safeguarding the older population. Infection of guinea pigs with a 2007 seasonal H1N1 virus confers some protection against infection 3 weeks later with a 2009 H1N1 strain. The animals produced significantly less virus in their respiratory tracts, and transmission of infection to naive animals was impaired. The pre-inoculated animals were also less susceptible to acquiring the 2009 H1N1 virus from another infected guinea pig. Similar results were observed when guinea pigs were first inoculated with a seasonal H3N2 strain and challenged with the pandemic virus. The conclusion is that infection with seasonal H1N1 or H3N2 viruses provides protection against infection with the 2009 H1N1 strain.
Continued at: http://www.virology.ws/2009/11/02/wh...fluenza-virus/


Share

Search Tags
None
Top

2 Readers Gave Kudos

 
Advertisement
Sponsored Links
 
Reply




Thread Tools


Who's Online
295 members
2,163 guests
2,458

3

Four Lehigh Valley Health Network nurses accused of...

48

lawsuit - But don't most RN's work through breaks/lunch...

0

Patient Evaluation of Retail Clinic Care

7

The hard to reach on-call doctor, and its effects on...

11

Woman charged with passing off prescription drug as...

26

Man in "Vegetative State" was conscious for 23...

2

Interesting article on ThedaCare's Collaborative Care Model

14

Possible breakthrough regarding MS

63

16th Philly area hospital to stop delivering babies: Mercy...

14

Really interesting article on Indian open hearts






Currently Reading This Page: 1 (0 members & 1 guests)

Interested in the hottest topics of the week? Subscribe to the Nurse-zine Newsletter.
Enter email address: