Swine Infection History
It goes by many names these days as it races across America and other parts of the world. Some call it the Swine Infection, others refer to it as the Swine Flu, while others use the more politically correct H1N1 flu. Whatever you refer to it as, this dangerous strain of the flu has caught the attention of Americans and it’s doctors.
The term Swine Flu or Swine Infection came from the original strain of the disease passing from hogs to hog workers or veterinarians. It was a very rare thing to happen though. Additionally, just because the virus passed from swine to human did not mean that the human would develop flu like symptoms. Mostly, the body would just create antibodies to fight the infection. If the infection does lead to the typical flu like symptoms the name changes to zoonotic swine flu. And to dispel any rumors, no, you cannot catch the disease from eating pork products.
Swine Infection history dates back to the early 1900s when 1918 saw a pandemic of human influenza and people and pigs became ill at the same time. The H1N1 strain we hear about today is a distant form of that same infection from all those years ago. During 1976, five soldiers at the military base Ft Dix, New Jersey, died of the disease which was present for only a couple of weeks, and was contained therein. At this time a vaccination was available but due to the fact that numerous elderly people died a short while after having the vaccination, it became the subject of public controversy. The population naturally panicked and many refused to have the injection even though there was never any proof that it was directly linked to the death of the elderly people.
As a result of the first two American cases being followed by hundreds of recorded cases in Mexico and several others worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) informs us that we are now at the center of a public health emergency situation which is affecting people all over the globe.
The disease is caused when pigs reared in close proximity touch nose to nose and mucus is transferred from one to another of them. It only takes a matter of days for the full herd to be infected and wild boars often spread the disease further to neighboring farms.
Swine Infection has greatly affected America and other parts of the world. The history of swine infection is no longer a secret to us, but how can this exactly help is the question.
Other post about health:
How To Protect Yourself From Bird Influenza
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