A new strain of swine flu that has spread to the United States and is raising fears of a possible pandemic. Learn more about the disease and why it is causing concern among health officials.
What is it?
Swine influenza is a respiratory disease of pigs first isolated in swine in 1930, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The illness is caused by four different type A influenza strains that can cause outbreaks in pigs, though subtypes H1N1 and H3N2 seem to be more common. The death rate among pigs is low, with most infections occurring in the late fall and winter.
Symptoms of infected pigs include fever, depression, coughing (barking), sneezing, difficulty breathing, red or inflamed eyes, lack of appetite and discharge from the nose or eyes.
How do people get infected?
Human infection happens intermittently, with most case
s occurring when patients have direct contact with pigs. But cases of an infected person transmitting the swine flu to others have also been document
ed, says the CDC. (A 1988 outbreak in pigs in Wisconsin led to multiple human infections, and there was evidence that a patient transmitted the virus t
o health care workers.)
About one case of swine flu in humans is reported to the CDC every one to two years, but from December 2005 through February 2009, 12 cases
were reported to the agency. According to WebMD.com, 11 of those people had direct or indirect contact with infected pigs.
Human-to-human infections do occur similar to the way the human seasonal flu virus is transmitted — through coughing, sneezing and comi
ng in contact with a person or object with the virus.
People cannot become infected by eating pork or pork
products. Cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit kills the virus as well as other bacteria, notes the CDC.
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