• 기술사
• /
• 제42권6호
• /
• pp.42-46
• /
• 2009

Every year influenza contributes to the death of 72 people in the South korea, 20,000 in the U.S. and perhaps millions worldwide. The swine fever so-called the noble flu A H1N1, a strain of the flu virus, which jumped species and burst into the human population in March and April of this year. The outbreak of 2009 novel H1N1 was the fourth in 100 years. Fortunately, it led to today's comparatively tame swine flu than the vicious 1918, which was original H1N1 pandemic flu virus, killed at least 40 million worldwide in an ongoing pandemic era. Although the 2009 H1N1 which is still in full swing, this global flu epidemic is already teaching scientists valuable lessons about pandemics. Evidence accumulated these days indicates that the 2009 H1N1 was not entirely new to all human immune systems. This article introduces only an outline for our better understanding the basic mechanisms of influenza and the vaccination about longstanding fears of that worst-case scenario engendered pandemic that are paying off today.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• 제22권2호
• /
• pp.93-99
• /
• 2014

The interaction between viral HA (hemagglutinin) and oligosaccharide of the host plays an important role in the infection and transmission of avian and human flu viruses. Until now, this interaction has been classified by sialyl(${\alpha}2-3$) or sialyl(${\alpha}2-6$) linkage specificity of oligosaccharide moieties for avian or human virus, respectively. In the case of H5N1 and newly mutated flu viruses, classification based on the linkage type does not correlate with human infection and human-to-human transmission of these viruses. It is newly suggested that flu infection and transmission to humans require high affinity binding to the extended conformation with long length sialyl(${\alpha}2-6$)galactose containing oligosaccharides. On the other hand, the avian flu virus requires folded conformation with sialyl(${\alpha}2-3$) or short length sialyl(${\alpha}2-6$) containing trisaccharides. This suggests a potential future direction for the development of new species-specific antiviral drugs to prevent and treat pandemic flu.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• 제21권5호
• /
• pp.449-454
• /
• 2011

The infection of pandemic influenza viruses such as swine flu (H1N1) and avian flu viruses to the host cells is related to the following two factors: First, the surface protein such as HA (hemagglutinin) and NA (neuraminidase) of the influenza virus. Second, the specific structure of the oligosaccharide [sialic acid(${\alpha}2$-6) galactose(${\beta}1$-4)glucose or sialic acid(${\alpha}2$-3)galactose(${\beta}1$-4)glucose] on the host cell. After recognizing the specific structure of the oligosaccharide on the surface of host cells by the surface protein of the influenza virus, the influenza virus can secrete sialidase and cleave the sialic acid attached on the final position of the specific structure of the oligosaccharide on the surface of host cells. Tamiflu (oseltamivir), known as a remedy of swine flu, has a saccharide analog structure, especially the sialic acid analog. Tamiflu can inhibit the invasion of influenza viruses (swine flu and avian flu viruses) into the host cells by competition with sialic acid on the terminal position of the specific oligosaccharide on the surface of the host cell. Because of the emergence of Tamiflu resistance, the development of new potent anti-influenza inhibitors is needed. The inhibitors with positive-charge groups have potential as antiviral therapeutics, and the strain specificity must also be resolved.

• 한국치위생학회지
• /
• 제10권4호
• /
• pp.567-576
• /
• 2010

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to examine selected people's knowledge of Influenza A(HINI), their self-efficacy, social norms, awareness of the gravity of the infection of the flu, behavioral intention, preventive behavior, the impact of their knowledge of the flu on those variables and the relationship of the variables, as the spread of the flu has been accelerated. Methods : The subjects in this study were 484 health-related majors at two selected colleges selected by random sampling from the metropolitan area. Results : As for connections between knowledge of the 2009 H1N1 and self-efficacy, the students who were knowledgeable about the flu got a mean of 3.24, and those whose knowledge was on an intermediate level got 3.08. The students who didn't know well about that got 2.91. The students who were better informed were ahead of those who were less informed in terms of self-efficacy, and the intergroup gap was statistically significant(p<0.01). In relation to self-efficacy, the better-informed students scored higher than the less-informed ones in both of the two items: whether to know how to cope with the spread of the 2009 H1N1(p<0.01), and whether to be able to be ready for the spread of it(p<0.01). The intergroup gaps were statistically significant. Conclusions : The knowledge of the students about Influence A(H1N1) and their preventive behavior were analyzed in association with the spread of the flu, and there were no differences in actual preventive behavior though they were not the same in terms of behavioral intention. Therefore health education programs should be prepared to improve not only their knowledge but their attitude and preventive skills to boost their preventive behavior.

• 한국학교보건학회지
• /
• 제23권1호
• /
• pp.63-70
• /
• 2010

Purpose: To identify the need to reform in the crisis response of Health Teacher, School Nurse, in elementary school during epidemic outbreak of influenza H1N1. Methods: 139 elementary health teachers, school nurse, in seoul elementary school responded in the questionnaire, and we analysed by using frequency and percent, t-test, and paired t-test. Results: The Job status became 121% more 'during influenza H1N1 (flu) outbreak' than Job status of 'before outbreak'. The proportion of the flu-related duty among their daily workload was up to 77.5%. The administration-related workload of the flu-related duty was 30.8%. and students' health assessment including temperature measurement 18.7%. Furthermore, an impediment of usual daily work due to an increaed flu-related workload was 95.7%, and no alternative plan such as disposition of assistant labor force was 86.1%. Especially, an impediment of health education was 61.0%, so the major concern was the loss of health education. We compared average scores (a five-point Likert scale) of health teachers' work motivation, exhaustion, work relationship and Job management of 'during' with 'before' flu-outbreak. The difference range of 'during' minus 'before' work motivation score was from -0.4 points to -0.9; work exhaustion range from 1.8 to 1.9; the difficulty of relationship between students, school personnel, parents of students, and health teachers from 1.4 points to 1.3 points; and the consideration of changing Job, taking time off from the Job and retirement from 1.4 to 1.6 points. Conclusion: The health teachers had a heavy workload due to flu-outbreak. They also experienced the impediment of usual work implementation. However, there was a shortage of alternative plan such as disposition of an assistant labor force. Under their Job status like this, the health teachers' motivation score was decreased and work exhaustion was increased. Furthermore, they had a lot of relation difficulty with students and school personnel. Therefore, we suggested that in contrast to the usual Job status, there is a need to have a prepared response during school crisis like flu-outbreak such as improved response system in seoul metropolitan education office, simplification or dispersion of administrative work, and temporary call-center for simple inquiries or advices.

• 한국육종학회지
• /
• 제40권2호
• /
• pp.106-112
• /
• 2008

International conferences to block the spread of Avian bird flu occurred in Beijing, 2006 and others warned of the seriousness of the H5N1 strain. The meetings succeeded in generating billions of dollars from USA, EU and World Bank. Migratory birds seem to play a major role in the spread of the aggressive strain globally from Asia to Europe and Africa. Experiences of tolerance breeding of maize (Zea mays L.) for four decades against 20 biotic stresses suggest that the prime cause of the occurrence of H5N1 strain was due to the human beings' counter-efforts against nature. Excessive use of chemicals (spray and injection) in the commercial poultry farms had created high selection pressure on virus. The new strain had mutated for survival. Attempting to eliminate the virus by chemicals for 100% control is a dangerous way to control biotic stresses. This can create more aggressive strains. A solution would be to build up tolerability of the commercial animals against the virus. Improvement of poultry cage environments and respect for nature must be integrated. Potential foes must be watched.

• 대한임상검사과학회지
• /
• 제42권1호
• /
• pp.1-15
• /
• 2010

Swine influenza virus (SIV) or swine-origin influenza virus (S-OIV) is endemic in swine, and classified into influenza A and influenza C but not influenza B. Swine influenza A includes H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2 and H2N3 subtypes. Infection of SIV occurs in only swine and that of S-OIV is rare in human. What human can be infected with S-OIV is called as zoonotic swine flu. Pandemic 2009 swine influenza H1N1 virus (2009 H1N1) was emerged in Mexico, America and Canada and spread worldwide. The triple-reassortant H1N1 resulting from antigenic drift was contained with HA, NA and PB1 of human or swine influenza virus, PB2 and PA polymerase of avian influenza virus, and M, NP and NS of swine influenza virus, The 2009 H1N1 enables to transmit to human and swine. The symptoms and signs in human infected with 2009 H1N1 virus are fever, cough and sore throat, pneumonia as well as diarrhea and vomiting. Co-infection with other viruses and bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae can occur high mortality in high-risk population. 2009 H1N1 virus was easily differentiated from seasonal flu by real time RT-PCR which contributed rapid and confirmed diagnosis. The 2009 H1N1 virus was treated with NA inhibitors such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) but not with adamantanes such as amantadine and rimantadine. Evolution of influenza virus has continued in various hosts. Development of a more effective vaccine against influenza prototypes is needed to protect new influenza infection such as H5 and H7 subtypes to infect to multi-organ and cause high pathogenicity.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• 제20권1호
• /
• pp.63-70
• /
• 2010

Novel influenza A (H1N1) is a newly emerged flu virus that was first detected in April 2009. Unlike the avian influenza (H5N1), this virus has been known to be able to spread from human to human directly. Although it is uncertain how severe this novel H1N1 virus will be in terms of human illness, the illness may be more widespread because most people will not have immunity to it. In this study, we compared the codon usage bias between the novel H1N1 influenza A viruses and other viruses such as H1N1 and H5N1 subtypes to investigate the genomic patterns of novel influenza A (H1N1). Totally, 1,675 nucleotide sequences of the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes of influenza A virus, including H1N1 and H5N1 subtypes occurring from 2004 to 2009, were used. As a result, we found that the novel H1N1 influenza A viruses showed the most close correlations with the swine-origin H1N1 subtypes than other H1N1 viruses, in the result from not only the analysis of nucleotide compositions, but also the phylogenetic analysis. Although the genetic sequences of novel H1N1 subtypes were not exactly the same as the other H1N1 subtypes, the HA and NA genes of novel H1N1s showed very similar codon usage patterns with other H1N1 subtypes, especially with the swine-origin H1N1 influenza A viruses. Our findings strongly suggested that those novel H1N1 viruses seemed to be originated from the swine-host H1N1 viruses in terms of the codon usage patterns.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
• /
• 제1권1호
• /
• pp.42-53
• /
• 2013

Timely access to quality healthcare information during an outbreak plays an important role in curtailing its spread. The aim of this study was to investigate the information needs and seeking behavior of the general public in Singapore during the H1N1 pandemic. A pre-tested questionnaire was used for data collection. The convenience snowball sampling method was used and 260 working adults and tertiary-level students participated in this study. The most crucial information needs of a majority of the participants were: symptoms of H1N1, causes of the infection, preventive measures, and possible treatments. Data analysis also revealed that mass media such as television, newspapers, and radio were most frequently used for seeking the needed information. The use of human information sources was also quite high while only a small number of the respondents accessed online news and healthcare websites. About three-quarters of the participants indicated that the gathered information helped them to stay vigilant and take necessary precautionary measures. A major problem identified by the participants in using H1N1 information was the lack of understanding of certain terms used in public communications. This paper suggests certain measures for strengthening health information communication during future outbreaks.

• Genomics & Informatics
• /
• 제14권3호
• /
• pp.96-103
• /
• 2016

The influenza A (H1N1) virus, also known as swine flu is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality since 2009. There is a need to explore novel anti-viral drugs for overcoming the epidemics. Traditionally, different plant extracts of garlic, ginger, kalmegh, ajwain, green tea, turmeric, menthe, tulsi, etc. have been used as hopeful source of prevention and treatment of human influenza. The H1N1 virus contains an important glycoprotein, known as neuraminidase (NA) that is mainly responsible for initiation of viral infection and is essential for the life cycle of H1N1. It is responsible for sialic acid cleavage from glycans of the infected cell. We employed amino acid sequence of H1N1 NA to predict the tertiary structure using Phyre2 server and validated using ProCheck, ProSA, ProQ, and ERRAT server. Further, the modelled structure was docked with thirteen natural compounds of plant origin using AutoDock4.2. Most of the natural compounds showed effective inhibitory activity against H1N1 NA in binding condition. This study also highlights interaction of these natural inhibitors with amino residues of NA protein. Furthermore, among 13 natural compounds, theaflavin, found in green tea, was observed to inhibit H1N1 NA proteins strongly supported by lowest docking energy. Hence, it may be of interest to consider theaflavin for further in vitro and in vivo evaluation.