NATS 1670 Lecture Notes - 1918 Flu Pandemic, Edward Jenner, Poliomyelitis

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1670
• Professor: Motti Anafi

Document Summary

Viruses are the most common causes of acute infections in humans: many viral diseases can be viewed as a failure of the virus to adapt to its host. 3700bc, memphis, ancient egypt: typical clinical signs of paralytic poliomyelitis, ramses v"s preserved mummy shows that he died of smallpox at the age of 35 in 1143 bc. 1000bc china: variolation (inhilation of smallpox scabs) 1519ad: smallpox was transferred from europe to the americas. 1796: edward jenner vaccinated a boy against smallpox, with material from cowpox lesion. 1892: dmitri iwanowski, a russian botanist showed that extracts from disease tobacco plants can transmit disease to other plants after passage through ceramic filters fine enough to retain the smallest known bacteria. 1918: spanish flu pandemic, 40+ million deaths worldwide. What are viruses: not cellular organisms, obligate intracellular parasites, can"t perform metabolism on their own, not considered to be alive outside of a parasitized cell.