The 2009 Swine Flu outbreak has “pandemic potential” according to the WHO.
One striking characteristic so far observed is the fact that young adults have been susceptible;
A number of reports have suggested previously healthy young adults — people ranging from their mid 20s to mid 40s — are making up a higher than expected percentage of the cases. With regular flu, young children and the elderly are generally at highest risk.
Helen Branswell MEDICAL REPORTER Healthzone.ca “Flu outbreak a ‘public health emergency,’ WHO warns“
The 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic also attacked young people in their twenties and thirties. According to Wikipedia entry on Swine Flu;
The puzzling fact is that the epidemic erupted almost simultaneously at distant locations, therefore it is likely that the virus was incubated in people with only mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. Other anomalous facts are that the disease attacked people in their twenties and thirties, thought to have strong immune systems, and most of the infections were lethal.
The NYC possible cases, where testing revealed they virus is likely Swine Flu, were also reported to be mild. Since information in 2009 travels a lot faster than 1918 it is possible that mild cases existed for some time in 1918 before the full onslaught hit – seemingly everywhere at once. Unfortunately due to our modern mobility in air travel, the virus is likely everywhere already and difficult to contain outbreaks even though we have information and technology to trace and identify even the mild cases very quickly.
The 1918 flu virus is a “swine flu” virus. Swine Flu virus’ circulating include H1N1, H3N1, and H3N2. The 2009 flu virus is also referred to as “swine flu” however there is a unique twist that was revealed in a CDC press conference yesterday.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, Director of CDCs National Center for Influenza and Respiratory Diseases, stated that;
we believe at this point that human-to-human spread is occurring. That’s unusual. …. We know so far that the viruses contain genetic pieces from four different virus sources. This is unusual. The first is our North American swine influenza viruses. North American avian influenza viruses, human influenza viruses and swine influenza viruses found in Asia and Europe.
I would feel better if she stopped adding the phrase “this is unusual” after each fact about the 2009 swine flu.
The fatality rate so far is significant but does not appear to be as high as the 1918 virus, if indeed it does evolve into a pandemic outbreak.
In terms of preparedness the only thing I would add to the steps in the previous post is to get a months worth of key items like toilet paper and anything that would cause you to go out of your residence if you didn’t want to for a week or two.
Published under
Pandemic Preparedness,
swine flu
Thank you for the above information on the connection between swine flu and the spanish flu, it was informative. However, I feel there is a lot more these two flu strains have in common and should be looked into very very seriously, if not already being done so.
There are a lot to do with a fully developed adult body, compaired to a much younger one and a much older adult body. One is not fully developed and at the other spectrum is, dare I say it deteriating. Therefore, if I can say, is the virus enjoying attacking a fully developed body, what attracks the viruses to it.
There are plenty more that can be said, so I would be very interested if more information would be published.