Description: negative sense,
single-stranded RNA, enveloped, 8 segments
Power: VERY POWERFUL! So deadly that it
resulted in over 50 million deaths around the world in 1918. The key to
this virus’s power lies in the fact that it underwent antigenic shift.
Every once in a while genomic segments from one strain of Influenza A virus
combine with genomic segments from another strain and form a new strain
that no one has ever been exposed to. This new strain will have a different
neurominidase and hemagglutinin combination than the other circulating
forms of Influenza A virus. In the case of Influenza A H1N1 virus, the
hemagglutinin 1 and neurominidase 1 combination was especially deadly when
it first arose in the winter of 1918. Some would even say that this little
guy had the power to defeat the world’s most powerful armies.
Offenses: Antigenic drift occurs
with every epidemic of Influenza A so that immunity developed to one
infection does not necessarily confer immunity to all infections of the same
strain. However, if someone survives infection with H1N1 and, subsequently,
gets re-infected that person will experience much less severe symptoms than
if it were their first infection.
Defenses: Using predictions based
on the type of virus that occurred in late infections of the previous
epidemic, scientists are able develop
a vaccine for the next seasonal outbreak. The
current vaccines
contain three influenza viruses, representing one
of the three
groups of viruses circulating among people. One of
the strains
is Influenza A H1N1 and the other two are A H3N2
and
an Influenza B.
Strategy: Infect humans during the
autumn/winter months when they are most likely to get infected. If you feel
like killing the opponent, make sure to target young children and the
elderly. To be even more deadly, try recruiting your bacterial friend
Streptococcus pneumoniae.
