Influenza: Biology, Infection, and Control

The growth of the human population has profoundly affected the global ecosystem, influencing the animal population balance, the availability of fresh water, arable land, biotic production, and atmospheric gases. The human ecological impact has significantly accelerated the evolutionary change of numerous organisms. For example, the production of human medicine and food has resulted in the rapid evolution of drug-resistant pathogenic organisms as well as plants and insects resistant to pesticides (Palumbi, 2001). Recently, the nutritional support of the human population has relied on the vast monoculture of domestic mammals and birds, which has facilitated the emergence of pathogenic enzootic organisms that infect both animals and humans. This chapter will focus on the global threat to human health represented by the highly contagious enzootic virus influenza. It will also discuss current efforts and future improvements to protect humans from global influenza epidemics and pandemics.