influenza

influenza
   A specific type of acute viral respiratory infection, with one virus (many strains) and a short, nasty stay. A few thousand people die from it every year, but humans alive at present have almost universal partial resistance. It was not so during WWI, when it first began to spread. It was variously called Spanish Influenza, La Grippe, and Influenza (Italian for Influence)...everyone blamed some other country for it.
   The Turks and Armenians took a break from mutual mutilation and blamed it on each other, since it killed as many people as the 1,000,000 fatalities THAT bit of genocide fostered. It ran across the world like some Bergmanesque horseman, and killed at least 20 million people before it petered out around 1925. The villages of Northern New Mexico, filled with grim and genetically toughened Spanish settlers, survivors of terrible weather, 300 years of isolation, the Inquisition, and Anglo carpetbaggers, suffered fatalities that reached 40% in some places. The flu is new.

Herbal-medical glossary. 2015.

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  • influenza — [ ɛ̃flyɑ̃za; ɛ̃flyɛnza ] n. f. • 1782; it. influenza « écoulement de fluide, influence », d où « épidémie » ♦ Vieilli Grippe. ● influenza nom féminin (anglais influenza, de l italien influenza) Synonyme vieilli de grippe. ● influenza (synonymes)… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • influenza A — ā n a common moderate to severe respiratory disease that affects humans and some other vertebrates (as swine and birds) sometimes in pandemics following mutation in the causative virus, that in humans is characterized by sudden onset, fever,… …   Medical dictionary

  • influenza B — bē n influenza that is usu. milder than influenza A, that may occur in epidemics but not pandemics, and that is caused by an orthomyxovirus (species Influenza B virus of the genus Influenzavirus B) infecting only humans and esp. children and… …   Medical dictionary

  • influenza C — sē n influenza that is restricted to humans, that usu. occurs as a subclinical infection, that occurs in neither epidemics or pandemics, and that is caused by an orthomyxovirus (species Influenza C virus of the genus Influenzavirus C) * * *… …   Medical dictionary

  • Influenza — Sf Grippe per. Wortschatz fach. (18. Jh.) Entlehnung. Entlehnt aus it. influenza, eigentlich Einfluß (der Sterne) , dieses aus ml. influentia Einfluß , zu l. influere hineinfließen , zu l. fluere fließen und l. in . Seit dem 15. Jh. bedeutet das… …   Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache

  • influenza — 1743, borrowed during an outbreak of the disease in Europe, from It. influenza influenza, epidemic, originally visitation, influence (of the stars), from M.L. influentia (see INFLUENCE (Cf. influence)). Used in Italian for diseases since at least …   Etymology dictionary

  • Influenza — In flu*en za, n. [It. influenza influence, an epidemic formerly attributed by astrologers to the influence of the heavenly bodies, influenza. See {Influence}.] (Med.) An epidemic viral infectious disease characterized by acute nasal catarrh, or… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Influenza — Influenza, 1) so v.w. Grippe; 2) seuchenartiges Katarrhalfieber der Pferde; tritt sehr versteckt auf, verläuft schnell u. ist gefährlich. Sie tritt theils als rheumatische, theils als katarrhalische, theils als gastrische Form auf. Das Thier… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • influenza — (Del it. influenza). f. gripe …   Diccionario de la lengua española

  • influenza — ► NOUN ▪ a highly contagious infection of the respiratory passages, spread by a virus and causing fever, severe aching, and catarrh. DERIVATIVES influenzal adjective. ORIGIN Italian, influence, outbreak of an epidemic , from Latin influere flow… …   English terms dictionary

  • Influénza — (ital), soviel wie Grippe (s. d.). – Als I. der Pferde bezeichnete man früher verschiedene fieberhafte akute Infektionskrankheiten, die heute wissenschaftlich als Brustseuche, Pferdestaupe und Skalma unterschieden werden. Der Name I. ist damit… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

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