H1N1 - Pigs and Viruses
Swine influenza is a highly contagious swine influenza A virus. Pigs get sick from swine viruses all the time, but they don't very often pass a virus to humans. Even though many swine get sick from flu viruses, very few die.
Photo courtesy of Justine Wilson
Swine are noted for being great “mixing vessels” for viruses. In other words, pigs can get more than one virus at a time, and the viruses easily mix and match genes while infecting a pig. In addition to pig viruses, swine can also get human viruses and avian flu or bird viruses. Once in awhile, a virus will jump species—or go from pig to human, bird to pig, human to another animal, etc. For example, recently swine in Alberta, Canada were infected with H1N1 flu virus from a Mexican farm worker. What is H1N1?The swine flu virus , that has been in the mainstream media news lately was named “Swine Flu”--not because it was a cute nickname, but because of its genetic composition. It has more swine characteristics than other characteristics.As we move forward, the flu virus may not be referred to as swine flu, because of the backlash against its name, using “swine”. The WHO and the CDC now refer to the flu virus as "H1N1 A". Swine influenza is a novel or new virus, a combination of bird, pig and human virus genes never before seen in the US or anywhere else in the world. It was a surprise—not a virus that scientists had been monitoring. Because it is completely novel, there are no vaccines that will protect against this new virus, and no humans have antibodies to fight it. The first case of this swine influenza is believed to be a young, 5 year old boy in Veracruz, Mexico. Scientists believe that the child got the virus from pigs and, when he got sick and became a carrier, he passed it on to other people. The swine influenza is passed very readily from person to person at this point.
Symptoms of Swine FluThe symptoms of swine flu are similar to those of seasonal flu , but, in some cases they are somewhat more severe. Deaths from this new flu virus, nothing like the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic , are 4 times higher than during a regular flu season.So, as you can see, this new H1N1 virus, swine flu, now a full blown pandemic, does have some characteristics that we need to watch. Check to see why WHO recently raised the pandemic alert level to understand why this is important. Also, make sure you know what
swine flu symptoms
you should be watching for, and what to do if you or one of your family members becomes ill.
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