influenza

plural influenzas · plural influenze

1. countableuncountablemedicineAn acute contagious disease of the upper airways and lungs, caused by a virus, which rapidly spreads around the world in seasonal epidemics.

   Israel has recorded the first case of a rare mixture of two diseases, influenza and coronavirus, dubbed “flurona”.

   2022 January 1, Sravasti Dasgupta, “Israel reports first case of ‘flurona’ – rare double infection of Covid and influenza”, in The Independent, archived from the original on 12 Apr 2022

   2 more examples

   In early 1919 the Board also issued a film, Dr Wise on Influenza, in which a character called 'Brown' spreads the disease by enacting poor behaviours. This did address transport - by boarding a crowded omnibus, "Brown may be scattering germs throughout the carriage and giving influenza to a number of people".

   2020 April 8, Dr David Turner, “How railway staff were conduits and victims of a pandemic”, in Rail, page 32

   Highly pathogenic bird flu (HPAI) is of rising concern to epidemiologists. The US National Library of Medicine lists H5N9 as a subtype avian influenza virus. […] It found cats could “serve as mixing vessels for reassortment of avian and mammalian influenza viruses” as well as act as a “bridge” to infect other species.

   2025 January 27, Edward Helmore, “First outbreak of rare bird flu strain reported at California poultry farm”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2025

   Synonyms: flu, grippe, grip