Swine Flu

Dearest all, here's some info for you. Worried for Dorin, Fang, Marc, Wei Liat who are overseas...

Swine flu has killed 81 people in Mexico. Other affected places are:
2). United States (New York, California, Kansas, Texas, Ohio)
3). France
4). Scotland
5). Spain
6). Israel
7). New Zealand

Other pandemics:
1). 1918 Spanish Flu - killed more than 50 million people
2). 1957 Asian Flu - killed 2 million people
3). 1968 Hongkong Flu - killed 1 million people
4). 2003 SARS - killed 775 people

2009 Mexico Swine Flu - 81 deaths... and counting (hopefully stop there)

a. What is swine influenza?
Swine influenza, or “swine flu”, is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease of pigs, caused by one of several swine influenza A viruses. The virus is spread among pigs by air, direct and
indirect contact, and asymptomatic carrier pigs. Although swine influenza viruses are normally species-specific and only infect pigs, they are reported to have crossed to humans.

b. How do people become infected and what are the symptoms?
People can get swine influenza from infected pigs, however, some human cases lack contact history with pigs or environments where pigs have been located. Human-to-human transmission has occurred in some instances but seems to be limited to close contacts and closed groups of people.

Generally clinical symptoms are similar to seasonal influenza ie. fever, cough, running nose etc. but there are reported clinical cases of infection leading to severe pneumonia and resulting in death.

c. Is there a human vaccine to protect from swine influenza?
There are no vaccines that contain the current swine influenza virus causing illness in humans. It is not known whether current human seasonal influenza vaccines can provide any protection.


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