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As I read article after article I am struck by the fact that a large part of the population think that you can get swine flu from eating pork
Ok this is not the first time we have had swine flu in this country the last really big outbreak was back in the 70's
Facts about the swine flu
It is called the swine flu because at one time the virus was in a pig however the virus mutated in order to infect a human. Actually they are debating to rename the influenza to North American Influenza due to the public confusion about transmission.
Even if pigs were the original source of the disease, experts said they did not appear to be playing any role in its transmission now. The virus is passing from person to person, they said, most likely by the spread of respiratory droplets .
These droplets can be inhaled or passed on by skin to skin contact such as shaking hands. It is why washing your hands is so important. So cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough and wash your hands!!
In humans, the symptoms of swine flu 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 strain responsible for the 2009 swine flu outbreak in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person makes a full recovery without requiring medical attention and without the use of antiviral medicines. The key part to the symptoms is a fever of 100.5. If you have a fever over 100.5 and all the other symptoms by all means go have yourself checked by a doctor
Some other info:
The swine flu is likely a descendant of the infamous "Spanish flu" that caused a devastating pandemic in humans in 1918–1919. In less than a year, that pandemic killed more an estimated 50 million people worldwide. Descendants of this virus have persisted in pigs; they probably circulated in humans until the appearance of the Asian flu in 1957, and reemerged in 1977. Direct transmission from pigs to humans is rare, with 12 cases in the U.S. since 2005.
The flu virus is perhaps the trickiest known to medical science; it constantly changes form to elude the protective antibodies that the body has developed in response to previous exposures to influenza or to influenza vaccines. Every two or three years the virus undergoes minor changes. Then, at intervals of roughly a decade, after the bulk of the world's population has developed some level of resistance to these minor changes, it undergoes a major shift that enables it to tear off on yet another pandemic sweep around the world, infecting hundreds of millions of people who suddenly find their antibody defenses outflanked. Even during the Spanish flu pandemic, the initial wave of the disease was relatively mild and the second wave was highly lethal.
In 1957, an Asian flu pandemic infected some 45 million Americans and killed 70,000. Eleven years later, lasting from 1968 to 1969, the Hong Kong flu pandemic afflicted 50 million Americans and caused 33,000 deaths, costing approximately $3.9 billion. In 1976, about 500 soldiers became infected with swine flu over a period of a few weeks. However, by the end of the month investigators found that the virus had "mysteriously disappeared" and there were no more signs of swine flu anywhere on the post. There were isolated cases around the U.S. but those cases were supposedly to individuals who caught the virus from pigs.
Medical researchers worldwide, recognizing that the swine flu virus might again mutate into something as deadly as the Spanish flu, were carefully watching the latest 2009 outbreak of swine flu and making contingency plans for a possible global pandemic.
Ok this is not the first time we have had swine flu in this country the last really big outbreak was back in the 70's
Facts about the swine flu
It is called the swine flu because at one time the virus was in a pig however the virus mutated in order to infect a human. Actually they are debating to rename the influenza to North American Influenza due to the public confusion about transmission.
Even if pigs were the original source of the disease, experts said they did not appear to be playing any role in its transmission now. The virus is passing from person to person, they said, most likely by the spread of respiratory droplets .
These droplets can be inhaled or passed on by skin to skin contact such as shaking hands. It is why washing your hands is so important. So cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough and wash your hands!!
In humans, the symptoms of swine flu 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 strain responsible for the 2009 swine flu outbreak in most cases causes only mild symptoms and the infected person makes a full recovery without requiring medical attention and without the use of antiviral medicines. The key part to the symptoms is a fever of 100.5. If you have a fever over 100.5 and all the other symptoms by all means go have yourself checked by a doctor
Some other info:
The swine flu is likely a descendant of the infamous "Spanish flu" that caused a devastating pandemic in humans in 1918–1919. In less than a year, that pandemic killed more an estimated 50 million people worldwide. Descendants of this virus have persisted in pigs; they probably circulated in humans until the appearance of the Asian flu in 1957, and reemerged in 1977. Direct transmission from pigs to humans is rare, with 12 cases in the U.S. since 2005.
The flu virus is perhaps the trickiest known to medical science; it constantly changes form to elude the protective antibodies that the body has developed in response to previous exposures to influenza or to influenza vaccines. Every two or three years the virus undergoes minor changes. Then, at intervals of roughly a decade, after the bulk of the world's population has developed some level of resistance to these minor changes, it undergoes a major shift that enables it to tear off on yet another pandemic sweep around the world, infecting hundreds of millions of people who suddenly find their antibody defenses outflanked. Even during the Spanish flu pandemic, the initial wave of the disease was relatively mild and the second wave was highly lethal.
In 1957, an Asian flu pandemic infected some 45 million Americans and killed 70,000. Eleven years later, lasting from 1968 to 1969, the Hong Kong flu pandemic afflicted 50 million Americans and caused 33,000 deaths, costing approximately $3.9 billion. In 1976, about 500 soldiers became infected with swine flu over a period of a few weeks. However, by the end of the month investigators found that the virus had "mysteriously disappeared" and there were no more signs of swine flu anywhere on the post. There were isolated cases around the U.S. but those cases were supposedly to individuals who caught the virus from pigs.
Medical researchers worldwide, recognizing that the swine flu virus might again mutate into something as deadly as the Spanish flu, were carefully watching the latest 2009 outbreak of swine flu and making contingency plans for a possible global pandemic.
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