[The influenza viruses: past, present and future].
Influeza disease is an underestimated public health problem. Epidemics spread rapidly from country to country and may affect as many as 500 million people all over the world in a year. The disease, particularly influenza A may kill the patients and the new influenza viruses which appeared in 1957 (Asian influenza) and 1968 (Hong Kong) are estimated to have caused at least 3 000 000 deaths in the world. There are several aspects in virus replication and maturation that have attracted considerable interest in recent years: the ubiquitous enzyme responsible for the activation of hemagglutinin at multibasic cleavage sites has been found to be furin, a member for a family of subtilisin-like eukaryotic proteases; the M2 protein forms adamantanamin-sensitive ion channels and regulates the pH in transport vesicles; the interferon induced Mx1 protein interferes also with replication of Thogoto virus, a hitherto unclassified tickborne virus now thought to belong to the orthomyxovirus family.  Inactivated influenza vaccines were first licensed in 1941. Extensive efficacy trials showed that vaccines were immunogenic and gave 70% protection. During the 1960s and 1970s, several improvements in vaccine production methods helped making current vaccines much less reactogenic: zonal centrifugation, high growth reassortants, "split"-vaccines, subunit vaccines. Killed complete virons of influenza virus absorbed to aluminium phosphate have been used for vaccination in Hungary since 1969. The protectiv effect of vaccine recorded in different studies varied, but was usually between 25% and 76% ...
Jankovics
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Johan Béla National Institute for Public Health, Budapest, Hungary.
D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000266:history*; D014612:Vaccines / Q000266:history*; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000266:history*; D014780:Viruses
D014612:Vaccines
Influenzavírusok: múlt, jelen és jövo.