H1N1 Influenza Virus (Swine Flu): A Comprehensive Insight into Escalating Catch-22 Scenarios

Authors

Muhammad Shahzaib, University of Sargodha, SargodhaFollow
Ehsan Ul Haq, University of Sargodha, SargodhaFollow

Funder

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work

Abstract

Introduction: Viruses have always been a major cause of various disastrous pandemics in mankind’s history. H1N1 became a threat when its original strain was first discovered back in the swine flu pandemic of 2009. It became highly catastrophic on a large scale because none of the therapeutic interventions and methodologies that were already present at the time were effective against the virus.

Methods: A vast amount of literature and research is available regarding H1N1 influenza from different reputable sources online. The data were gathered with the contrasting and relative situations of 1918 and 2009 pandemics in mind. The overall extracted material provides comprehensive insights into the ups and downs of H1N1 influenza from 1918 up to 2009.

Results:H1N1 virus has a huge potential to cause a pandemic of Influenza type A. The illness caused by the virus has a varying degree of severity depending on the immune function of the individual under attack. The virus exploits droplet-based transmission mode for its spread from one host to another. The major center of escalation of the subtypes of the virus mostly originates from different avian and swine species, most notably subtypes H9N2 and H5N1 of influenza A, which are not easily transmissible among humans. Furthermore, the droplet-based transmission takes comparatively less time to infect a population of thousands if not millions. This ultimately increases the overall death toll by several-fold by initiating a constant wave of pro-inflammatory cytokine release among affected hosts.

Conclusion: Since its discovery in 2009, researchers have developed antiviral drugs and vaccines to fight the virus, most of which have proven to be very successful in treating the interconnected complications. The present-day strategies are only efficacious until the current strains of influenza A do not produce resistance against these drugs. All the therapeutic techniques and methodologies that have been developed to confront the virus up until now have been described in this ample review.

DOI

10.18297/jri/vol5/iss1/4

Erratum

This erratum corrects the following: Shahzaib M, Haq EU. H1N1 influenza virus (swine flu): a comprehensive insight into escalating Catch-22 scenarios. Univ Louisville J Respir Infect 2021; 5(1):Article 4. doi: 10.18297/jri/vol5/iss1/4. The following changes were made to this article on January 24, 2022: - Original figure 1 "A semi-logarithmic chart of laboratory-confirmed A (H1N1) influenza cases by date according to WHO (World Health Organization) reports" removed as the appropriate permissions had not been acquired. - Original figure 2 "Viral load, antiviral therapy, and resistance detection during hospitalization of a patient infected with pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus" removed as the appropriate permissions had not been acquired. - Original figure 3 "Adjusted estimates of influenza vaccine effectiveness [2016–17], overall and stratified according to age, virus subtype or lineage, and vaccine subtype" removed as the appropriate permissions had not been acquired. We apologize for these errors.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Shahzaib, Muhammad and Ul Haq, Ehsan (2021) "H1N1 Influenza Virus (Swine Flu): A Comprehensive Insight into Escalating Catch-22 Scenarios," The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections: Vol. 5 : Iss. 1 , Article 4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18297/jri/vol5/iss1/4
Available at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/jri/vol5/iss1/4