What is the true nature of epidemic influenza virus and how do new epidemic viruses spread?

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Abstract
It might seem very late to suggest, nearly 400 years after the first clinical description of influenza and 54 years after its isolation (reviewed by Stuart-Harris. Schild & Oxford, 1985), that many fundamental questions remain to be answered about the virus itself. However the precise antigenic and biochemical structure of the natural field virus has not been established. If so much remains to be learned concerning the nature of the virion then perhaps it may be less surprising that there are some conflicting theories as regards influenza epidemiology. Such questions are raised in the current volume of the journal where Hope-Simpson & Golubev (pp. 5 54) propose a major role for virus persistence in the human disease and, a lesser role for a linked chain of acute infection spreading influenza around the world (see also Hope-Simpson. 1979: 1981). This would be a minority view of the epidemiology of influenza A at present and is most definitely in conflict with the orthodox idea of person to person spread in an endless chain.