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WHAT IS H1N1 SWINE FLU?
H1N1 Swine Influenza is a respiratory disease that affects pigs. Swine influenza is caused by a Type A virus when it hits a community of pigs it may cause extreme illness but a low death toll. The first Type A influenza virus was first isolated and identified back in 1930 in the USA. Influenza is permanently found in pigs, it lies dormant during the year and suddenly outbreaks during the late fall and winter months, at the same time human influenza virus outbreak.
Type A virus are extremely mutating and changing viruses. They add new genes and reorder themselves constantly. It is very hard to keep up with them. Pig farms, especially large farms are constantly bringing in new individuals from other farms, buying and selling reproduction stock and stock to be butchered. These pigs that change farms or are slaughtered are not inspected for influenza symptoms during the year because they do not have any. Symptoms show up during the winter in the same manner they do with humans.
This means that during the rest of the year, the Type A influenza virus is travelling form one farm to another, from one city to another and even from one country to another. Once all these pigs have moved around and have been distributed all over the world, the winter months come along and symptoms erupt. Only these travelling pigs have brought with them virus strains native to their place of origin and possibly unknown to their new location. Infection occurs between the pig community and the new strain is distributed among the inhabitants of the new home. These pigs may already have their own strain of Type A virus which then combines with the new one and re-engineers itself into a brand new strain.
This new strain may be weak and disappear eventually or it may be strong and survive the mutation. Usually Nature allows the strong characteristics and genes from a given species to be passed on to guarantee the survival of said species. This means that generally the new virus will be stronger than its parents.
Type A Influenza virus can also be found in humans and birds, all three varieties were originally different and independent. Nobody knows when or how the Type A influenza virus made the jump in between species. The fact is that today we face mutations of all three viruses mixed and combined many times over. People working with pigs or birds somehow got infected with animal viruses and once infected; the human virus exchanged genes with the animal virus and created a new strain different to all that existed.
At this point in time and after who knows how many mutations, we face mixtures of pig and bird virus, pig and human virus, bird and human virus, plus all the mixtures created by the mutations inside their own species and location caused by the importation of animals or humans from other areas of the world bringing their own strain of the Type A virus. There are four main influenza Type A virus subtypes, H1N1, H1N2, H3N2, and H3N1, the mathematical probabilities that can emerge from the combination and recombination of these are astronomical.
All the recent outbreaks of swine influenza are H1N1 types. The last one, the one that hit the world this year is a very strong, aggressive strain which eventually will also mutate into another. There is nothing we can do about this, all we can do is wait for it to emerge and show itself. Once it does we must hurry and create a new vaccine and new treatments to fight it.