CLASSIFICATION BY ETIOLOGIC AGENT
TERM
INCLUDES
SOME CAUSES
Virus
Adenovirus
80 percent of all acute
respiratory diseases in
recruits
Myxovirus
Influenza
Parainfluenza
Picornavirus
Coxsackie
Rhinovirus30 types
Reovirus
Mycoplasma pneumoniae
Stretpococcus spp.
Bacteria
Others
Table 3-1. Classification of acute respiratory diseases
An entire unit or community can develop influenza within 24 to 72 hours
after exposure to a newly introduced virus to which the members are susceptible.
This point is starkly illustrated by the pandemics of 1889, 1918, and 1957-
1958.
-- In 1918, more than 20 million people died from influenza caused by
the so-called swine virus or one closely related to it.
-- The 1957-1958 pandemic of Asian influenza was much milder but
was pandemic in the full sense.
b. Influenza Today. Influenza now is an acute self-limiting disease of abrupt
onset, lasting from 1 to 6 days.
Recovery in otherwise healthy persons of military age may follow in from
5 to 7 days.
Death from influenza itself, or from pneumonia as a complication,
sometimes occurs in persons who are weakened or debilitated.
MD0152
3-8