What is swine flu?

thanks to http://trancy.net/


What is swine flu?
“Swine influenza (also called swine flu, hog flu, and pig flu) is an infection of a host animal by any one of several specific types of microscopic organisms called “swine influenza virus”. In 2009 the media labeled as “swine flu” flu caused by 2009’s new strain of swine-origin A/H1N1 pandemic virus just as it had earlier dubbed as “avian flu” flu caused by the recent Asian-linage HPAI (High Pathogenic Avian Influenza) H5N1 strain that is still endemic in many wild bird species in several countries.

The 2009 swine flu outbreak in humans is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that contains genes closely related to swine influenza. The origin of this new strain is unknown. However, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports that this strain has not been isolated in pigs. This strain can be transmitted from human to human, and causes the normal symptoms of influenza.”

What else?
Swine influenza/pandemic flu does not cause fever in a certain percent of the population. Do not use lack of fever to clear a person of infected status. Rapid tests for influenza may also turn up negative while the person is still infected. Manufacturers of these tests have said that they may or may not detect novel H1N1 and may have up to a 50% false negative rate.

What is this about kids and swine flu?
The median age of people hospitalized (in hospital) due to swine flu is 15. This does not happen during seasonal flu. Seasonal flu pretty much only kills the very young and very old. Swine flu, so far, the majority of deaths have been in teenagers or middle-aged people.

Also, see this excerpt from Quebec (Canada): “The Public Health Agency of Canada says just over five per cent of the people confirmed to have swine flu in this country have been treated in hospital. The agency estimates one-quarter of those hospitalized had an underlying medical condition.”
This means that three-quarters (75%) of people hospitalized did not have an underlying medical condition – that they were normally healthy individuals.

Is swine flu deadlier than normal flu?
See this report (PDF). The case fatality rate (CFR) of the pandemic strain is estimated at 0.4% (0.3%-1.5%). This is much deadlier than seasonal flu – if you scale up the numbers with the percentages, many more will die compared to seasonal flu.

How is swine flu spread?
The same way as regular seasonal flu. However, much more people exposed to swine flu will go on to develop it compared to seasonal flu because there is zero immunity to swine flu present. Most people have some kind of little immunity to seasonal flu.

What are some possible problems in the future?

* H5N1 avian flu: Swine flu has moved into Egypt and other countries that have avian flu. Avian flu kills almost every person it infects. Scientists are worried about these two combining and hitting a middle ground in fatality ratios.
* H1N1 seasonal flu – Southern Hemisphere: Flu season has ended in the Northern Hemisphere. However, it’s starting to be active in the Southern Hemisphere. Seasonal flu worldwide is resistant to Tamiflu, where swine flu is susceptible to Tamiflu. Both of these viruses are H1N1, which means drug resistance could be passed along to swine influenza.

Why is the United States (and other countries) no longer testing for swine flu in healthy people?
This is partly because of two things:

* Lack of resources: The RT-PCR specific test for swine influenza is more time consuming and takes much longer than a rapid test (which can’t tell if it’s swine flu specifically)
* Lack of necessity: The flu season has ended in North America – there is either little or no more seasonal flu. Almost all cases of rapid-test Influenza A are now swine flu. As such, there are more cases than are “confirmed” – possibly hundreds of thousands times more cases.