What is Swine Flu?
The Swine influenza is an infectious disease caused by any one of several types of swine influenza virus strains. The Swine influenza virus (SIV) is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is enpidemic in pigs. As of 2009, the known SIV strains include influenza C and the subtypes of influenza A known as H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2, andH2N3.
Swine influenza virus is common throughout pig populations worldwide. Transmission of the Swine Flu influenza from pigs to humans is not common and does not always lead to human influenza, often resulting only in the production of antibodies in the blood. If transmission does cause human influenza, it is called a Zoonotic swine flu. People with regular exposure to pigs have a higer risk of being infected with swine flu. The meat of an infected animal poses no risk of infection when properly cooked.
During the mid-20th century, identification of influenza subtypes became possible, allowing accurate diagnosis of transmission to humans. Since then, only 50 such transmissions have been confirmed. These strains of swine flu rarely pass from human to human. Symptoms of Zoonotic swine flu in humans are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort. The 2009 H1N1 virus is contagious and is spreading from human to human.
During the mid-20th century, identification of influenza subtypes became possible, allowing accurate diagnosis of transmission to humans. Since then, only 50 such transmissions have been confirmed. These strains of swine flu rarely pass from human to human. Symptoms of Zoonotic swine flu in humans are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort. The 2009 H1N1 virus is contagious and is spreading from human to human.
As you can see more people believed that Swine Flu spreads from the animals more then the air or touching.
How Did Swine Flu start?
Swine Flu started when around Thanksgiving 2005 a teenage boy helped his brother-in-law butcher 31 pigs at a local Wisconsin slaughterhouse.A week later the 17-year-old pinned down another pig while it was gutted. In the lead-up to the holidays the boy's family bought a chicken and kept the animal in their home, out of the harsh Sheboygan Autumn. On December 7, the teenager came down with the flu, suffering an illness that lasted three days. He visited a local clinic, and then fully recovered, and nobody in his family got the flu.
This incident would hardly seem worth mentioning except that the influenza virus that infected the Wisconsin boy was unlike any previously seen. This virus appeared to be a mosaic of a wild-bird form of flu, a human type and a strain found in pigs.
It was the H1N1 Human Swine Influenza. This incident was largely ignored at the time, the virus at Wisconsin was a step along the evolutionary tree, leading to a virus that four years later would stun the world.
Flash-forward to April 2009, and young boy named Édgar Enrique Hernández in faraway La Gloria, Mexico, suffers from the flu, it was soon found that the cause was by a similar mosaic of swine/bird/human flu, also H1N1.Thousands of miles away in Cairo, the Egyptian government decides pigs are the source of disease, and orders 300,000 animals in the predominantly Muslim (therefore not pork-consuming) society slaughtered.
Each of these three incidents is related to the unfolding influenza crisis. It is the manner of human beings to seek blame during times of fear. Fingers are now pointing, either at the entire pig species Sus domestica, or at the nation of Mexico. Such exercises in blame are not only scientifically ill founded, are likely to prompt government actions that, at the very least, are useless and, at worst, harmful for efforts to control a pandemic.
Swine Flu started when around Thanksgiving 2005 a teenage boy helped his brother-in-law butcher 31 pigs at a local Wisconsin slaughterhouse.A week later the 17-year-old pinned down another pig while it was gutted. In the lead-up to the holidays the boy's family bought a chicken and kept the animal in their home, out of the harsh Sheboygan Autumn. On December 7, the teenager came down with the flu, suffering an illness that lasted three days. He visited a local clinic, and then fully recovered, and nobody in his family got the flu.
This incident would hardly seem worth mentioning except that the influenza virus that infected the Wisconsin boy was unlike any previously seen. This virus appeared to be a mosaic of a wild-bird form of flu, a human type and a strain found in pigs.
It was the H1N1 Human Swine Influenza. This incident was largely ignored at the time, the virus at Wisconsin was a step along the evolutionary tree, leading to a virus that four years later would stun the world.
Flash-forward to April 2009, and young boy named Édgar Enrique Hernández in faraway La Gloria, Mexico, suffers from the flu, it was soon found that the cause was by a similar mosaic of swine/bird/human flu, also H1N1.Thousands of miles away in Cairo, the Egyptian government decides pigs are the source of disease, and orders 300,000 animals in the predominantly Muslim (therefore not pork-consuming) society slaughtered.
Each of these three incidents is related to the unfolding influenza crisis. It is the manner of human beings to seek blame during times of fear. Fingers are now pointing, either at the entire pig species Sus domestica, or at the nation of Mexico. Such exercises in blame are not only scientifically ill founded, are likely to prompt government actions that, at the very least, are useless and, at worst, harmful for efforts to control a pandemic.
Black coloured areas= deaths and infections, red coloured areas=confirmed cases
Where did Swine Flu Start?
The Human Swine Flu Influenza crisis is believed to have begun in La Gloria, a small town in southern Mexico, although it may have actually been a "silent epidemic" circulating unknown in Mexico from as far back as January 2008.
The first confirmed and reported case of the Swine Flu was in Mexico City and was made public March 18, 2009, but it was thought that for at least several months prior to that, this strain of the H1N1 flu was infecting people in and around La Gloria, a village of about 3,000 people.Evidence shows that the first human case was traced back to a young boy named Edgar Hernandez from La Gloria, luckily he survived the virus.
Also, although a particular pig farm in Mexico was thought to have perhaps had the first case of the flu among pigs, the Mexican government tested and found no evidence of that at the farm. It is now believed that the first case among pigs was more likely at a different pig farm in Texas.
The U.S had their first cases of Human Swine Flu discovered very soon after the Mexican cases, with two children in Southern California. The first was discovered on April 14, 2009 in a child in the San Diego County in California and another child a few days later in a town not far from where the first was discovered. The next cases in the US began in Texas and became more and more widespread there as the sporadic outbreaks began and gradually spread throughout the world.
