CDC: 7 people sick with a new strain of swine flu

[JamesSavik]

Reuters Article

 

Seven people in U.S. hit by strange new swine flu

 

WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - Seven people have been diagnosed with a strange and unusual new kind of swine flu in California and Texas, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.

 

All seven people have recovered but the virus itself is a never-before-seen mixture of viruses typical among pigs, birds and humans, the CDC said.

 

"We are likely to find more cases," the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat told a telephone briefing. "We don't think this is time for major concern around the country."

 

The CDC reported the new strain of swine flu on Tuesday in two boys from California's two southernmost counties.

 

________________________________________

 

A variant of swine flu swept the world in 1917-18 in a pandemic that killed 20 million people. It so enervated the countries of the world that it hastened the end of WWI and created a mini economic depression.

[Tiger]

That sounds awful. I doubt it will create an epidemic, but it could. It seems like the media always tries to create hysteria about diseases. It's shameful.

[JamesSavik]

Flu virus serotype names are derived from the forms of the two kinds of proteins on the surface of its coat, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) or their hosts.

 

Influenza A subtypes are H1N1, H1N2, H2N2, H2N3 or Spainish, Avian and Hong Kong Flus respectively.

 

The forms of the two kinds of proteins on the surface of its coat, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) make a huge difference in the virilence and severity of the infection cause by the virus.