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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."
On top of everything else, now we have to worry about our police being knocked out by influenza!
Great.
9 out of 10 pigs suggest calling it "Human Flu."
This ain't rocket surgery.
They always said there was no way that this could happen. They said that pigs would fly before this happened.
Well... Swine Flew
Thanks...I'll be here all week
Karma: Excellent. 15 moderator points expire sometime.
Influenza viruses go back and forth between humans, pigs, and birds, and they also mutate regularly. So, this didn't really "start" anywhere, it's a normal part of how the influenza virus lives.
I *still* think that Bacon Fever is a superior name. Just sayin'.
You oinky vermins! You oinky, wonderous animal, you, delicious... ZOMG, what have we done?!
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
i hope they don't cull us to save the pig population.
liqbase
The best I've heard so far is Parmageddon. Aporkalypse isn't too bad either.
My understanding was that there was some amount of genetic reassortment that allowed the swine flu to be infectious to humans, and to transmit human to human. This altered virus is then somewhat different than the swine flu that typically infects swine, so I think that (in addition to not previously being documented) it is seen as interesting that the virus would jump back to the swine population after mutation. Of course, I may be completely wrong about this, and I encourage anyone better versed in virology to correct me.
I'm always positive; it's my nature.
Current reports indicate that this strain of H1N1 influenza contains genetic material from swine, avian, and human forms of the disease. That's probably why it can spread easily from humans to pigs; normally, a virus does not cross species unless there is frequent or prolonged close contact between the two, because making the leap depends on genetic mutation. In this case, the virus is already adapted to both hosts.
To further clarify, the name "H1N1" refers only to a particular configuration of two proteins on the surface of the virus (H is hemagglutinin and N is neuraminidase). The configuration of these proteins determines how the immune system will react to a given strain of influenza (i.e. which antibodies will be able to recognize and attack it), which is the most useful information to have when it comes to treating the disease, but there are other factors that determine a given strain's properties.
So the news here is not that H1N1 flu can jump from humans to pigs -- it can't, not necessarily -- the news is that this variety appears to be able to. And it's not that we didn't know this could be possible -- we've seen this kind of thing countless times, and in fact it's believed that all forms of influenza ultimately come from birds -- it's just that calling it "H1N1 flu" doesn't give us enough information to make those kinds of predictions about its virulence.
Breakfast served all day!
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!