Influenza is a contagious illness that is brought on by RNA viruses.

Scientists still do not much information as to how the virulent strains of influenza viruses developed, but research is ongoing as more and more new strains of influenza viruses keep developing each year.Usually when a person gets influenza, it is mistaken for common cold as it has similar symptoms. This impedes the initial treatment as many people do not seek medical treatment for the illness. However, unlike the common cold, influenza causes headaches, fever, and cough. Also, the illness lasts for around a week. The illness can be quite dangerous for very young children and seniors. It can also prove to be dangerous for people with weakened immune system and other chronic health issues.

Like many medical discoveries, even influenza was discovered by accident. In 1918, during the Spanish influenza pandemic, a veterinarian named J. S. Koen was studying a disease in pigs which he believed was the same disease that caused Spanish influenza. Then in 1928, a scientist named N. McBryde tried to transmit flu from one pig to another by taking the mucus from the respiratory tract of an infected pig and putting it into the nasal passage of uninfected pigs. However, this experiment did not give any results as the uninfected pigs did not get the illness. This experiment failed primarily because the bacterial filters that were used did not allow viral particles to flow through.

In the same year, another researcher named Robert Shope from the Rockefeller Institute for Comparative Pathology tried the same experiment as McBryde. However, he used unfiltered mucus. Though the pigs did not get the disease, Shope discovered that when filtered fluid was used to inoculate the pigs, they became ill. This experiment became a landmark discovery as it proved that influenza is caused by a virus. This discovery laid the foundation for conducting research on the influenza that affects humans.

Finally in 1933, three scientists, Wilson Smith, Christopher Andrews and Patrick Laidrow, were instrumental in identifying the virus that causes influenza in humans.

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