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H1N1 Appears To Be Transmittable From Human To Pig
mpetch writes "In an interesting twist, it appears that H1N1 influenza can be transmitted from humans to swine. Apparently a Canadian pig farmer vacationed in Mexico, returned to Canada and infected about 10% of the swine on an Alberta farm. The swine subsequently developed flu symptoms."
It's news because it hasn't been seen in swine until now!
but I'm not afraid of the flu. I think we should name it what Fox News suggested. The Black Plague 2.
Yeah I love the way the major news networks hype this up. "This is what we want you to be afraid of today!" Anyone remember hoof-and-mouth disease? Mad cow? How about SARS? Bird flu? There's probably a few I'm forgetting. All terrible horrible epidemic plagues that were going to kill us all, or so you'd think from listening to the news. You want a population that's easy to control, you first have to make them afraid of something. Of course you could also choose to think that all of these things are accidents or coincidences...
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
How is any of this news?
The normal, unswinely Influenza killed 190,000 people this year, just as every year and nobody gives a shit.
The Swine one killed 1.
The H1N1 strain of type A influenza is the strain associated with the global influenza pandemic of 1918. In that year, not 190,000 but tens of millions of people died.
Normally, the people who die from influenza are the very young or the very old. The shocking characteristic of the 1918 variety was that a great many of the people who succumbed to the disease were young and fit. They went from being healthy and happy to being dead in an alarmingly short period. Immunology had not advanced far enough at that time to for doctors to understand why this was happening, but today it is believed to have been the result of a phenomenon known as cytokine storm, which is a severe autoimmune reaction. In other words, the patients died because they were so fit and had healthy -- their immune systems, reacting to the sudden threat, went nuts and attacked their own bodies.
Modern medicine could reduce the body count of such a flu dramatically, but if such a strain appeared again it would still be catastrophic. Treating viruses is still very difficult. There is still no cure for the common cold -- and, under normal circumstances, most people who get the flu just sit it out. Providing medicine for every patient in a true pandemic would be very costly and it's likely that there simply wouldn't be enough for everybody. It is also difficult to treat an autoimmune reaction in a patient that is already known to be suffering from a serious infection -- suppress the immune system and the virus wins. So don't assume that it would be easy to keep a new pandemic under control just because it's almost a century later.
So the reason for all the hubbub is clear. Scientists want to be the Paul Reveres of a future pandemic: The British are coming, they're not already here. So to arms now -- not when they're in our homes. Governments can be very slow-moving when confronted with unforeseen things and they often need this kind of uproar from the medical community before prevention protocols can kick in.
Breakfast served all day!
"Nah i think your thinking of swine syphilis, again!"
I think "your" thinking of "you're", again.
-b
myselfmusic