Swine influenza (also called swine flu, hog flu, and pig flu) refers to influenza caused by those strains of influenza virus that usually infect pigs and are called swine influenza virus (SIV).[1] Swine influenza is common in pigs in the midwestern United States (and occasionally in other states), Mexico, Canada, South America, Europe (including the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy), Kenya, Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and other parts of eastern Asia.
Transmission of SIV from pigs to humans is not common. When it results in human influenza, it is called zoonotic swine flu. People who work with pigs, especially people with intense exposures, are at risk of catching swine flu. However, only about fifty such transmissions have been recorded since the mid-20th Century, when identification of influenza subtypes became possible. (Importantly, eating pork does not pose a risk of infection.) Rarely, these strains of swine flu can pass from human to human. 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 2009 flu outbreak in humans that is widely known as “swine flu” is due to a new strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 that was produced by reassortment from one strain of human influenza virus, one strain of avian influenza virus, and two separate strains of SIV. The origin of this new strain is unknown, and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports that this strain has not been isolated in pigs
Symptoms:-
Sudden fever or a sudden cough.
Other symptoms may include:
- headache
- tiredness
- chills
- aching muscles
- limb or joint pain
- diarrhoea or stomach upset
- sore throat
- runny nose
- sneezing
- loss of appetite
If the flu becomes pandemic, potentially, everyone is at risk because few people, if any at all, will have immunity (resistance) to it.
If you have any of these symptoms but a flu pandemic has not been announced, you could have seasonal flu.
If you feel unwell:
If you have flu-like symptoms and have recently travelled to Mexico, stay at home and contact either your GP or NHS Direct on 0845 4647.
Before calling NHS Direct you can check your symptoms with this NHS online tool.
Posted on May 2nd, 2009 by admin
Filed under: Health & Fitness
One of my sisters got infected with H1N1 or more commonly known as Swine Flu. Fortunately, she did not have very high fever and she was able to recover fast .
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My brother got infected with H1N1 or Swine Flu in Mexico. He got a mild fever and luckily he did not die.
If you look at the pandemic of 1977, when H1N1 or Swine Flu re-emerged after a 20 year absence, there is no shift in age-related mortality pattern. The 1977 “pandemic” is, of course, not considered a true pandemic by experts today, for reasons that are not entierely consistent. It certainly was an antigenic shift and not an antigenic drift. As far as I have been able to follow the current events, the most significant factor seems to have been that most people, who were severely affected, were people with other medical conditions.
2 of my cousins in mexico got infected with the swine flu virus. thank God, they recovered well. it is a great news that the pandemic on swine flu is gone now.