Influenza

My lifetime encompasses the postwar subsidence in the early 1920s of the greatest influenza pandemic in history, direct encounters with FM1 virus at Fort Mon­ mouth in 1947, the care of influenza patients in the 1950s, the pursuit of the in­ fluenza virus through the modern pandemics of 1957 and 1968, and a present in which the genes of the virus have dissembled in the DNA of vaccinia virus and Escherichia coli through the wand of "high tech. " If my corpus could be fossilized for archival and archaeological purposes, it would be found to contain immune cells branded with the imprint of the "swine" influenza virus of post-1918 and brain cells no less imprinted with memories of the abortive return of its descendant during America's bicentennial. But before that unlikely event, I wanted to try to make some sense out of this baffling dis­ ease and its viruses-expecting no definitive revelations but hoping for a sharper definition of problems. Hence this book. It is an audacious act in these days of specialization to essay a book such as this singlehandedly, but I have done so for selfish reasons. I wanted to reexam­ ine old questions about the nature of influenza and its epidemics in the light of the dazzling advances in molecular biology of the past few years. No virus has been better studied, but few diseases are less well understood. Front Matter....Pages i-xxi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 History of Influenza....Pages 3-22 Front Matter....Pages 23-23 Taxonomy and Comparative Virology of the Influenza Viruses....Pages 25-32 Viral Structure and Composition....Pages 33-56 Replication of Influenza Viruses....Pages 57-87 Cytopathogenesis and Cytopathology of Influenza Virus Infection of Cells in Culture....Pages 89-110 Influenza Virus Genetics, Viral Adaptation, and Evolution....Pages 111-154 Front Matter....Pages 155-155 Influenza in Man....Pages 157-218 The Laboratory Diagnosis of Influenza....Pages 219-228 Animal Influenza....Pages 229-251 Front Matter....Pages 253-253 The Epidemiology of Influenza....Pages 255-289 The Control of Influenza....Pages 291-345 Back Matter....Pages 347-359