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Free course
Influenza: A case study
Free statement of participation on completion
This free course, Influenza: A case study, explores the biology of influenza, covering a range of topics including: the virus, infection, replication, mutation, immune responses, pathology, surveillance, diagnosis and treatment.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- define and use, or recognise definitions and applications of, each of the glossary terms in the course
- describe influenza viruses, their structure, how they are transmitted, how they infect cells and replicate and how they produce their damage in the host
- outline the different types of immune defence which are deployed against flu infections, distinguishing those that act against infected cells from those that act against free virus
- describe how strains of the virus change over time, and relate this to the flu viruses that occur in birds and other mammals
- explain how the epidemic pattern of influenza can be related to the evolution of new strains of virus and to the specificity of the immune response against each strain.
First Published: 09/08/2012
Updated: 13/03/2019
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