Swine influenza or swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by a type A influenza virus. This virus regularly causes outbreaks of influenza in pigs. Like all influenza viruses, swine flu mutates or changes constantly. Just as pigs can be affected by bird flu and human influenza, the virus can also affect humans.
Normally, swine flu does not infect humans; however, sporadic human infections with swine flu have occurred in many countries. The infections occur mostly in persons who have had direct exposure to pigs infected with swine flu. Ready candidates for this are personnel in the pig husbandry and the abattoirs.
Because swine, avian and human flu viruses are very similar, the symptoms for swine flu is similar to the regular human flu. These symptoms include, fever, body ache, loss in appetite and coughing. For swine flue victims, other symptoms such as having a runny nose, sore throat, vomiting and even diarrhoea are common complaints.
Pigs are a source of meat called pork, and when news started spreading about the outbreak of swine flu around the world, one of the primary concerns was to know how the disease is spreading. Swine flu does not infect people by ingesting or eating slaughtered sick pigs with swine flu. It is perfectly safe to eat pork so long as the pork is cooked properly.
Swine flu is spread, first from pigs to humans. Humans who had direct exposure to pigs with swine flu have caught the disease. Pigs can also be infected by humans carrying the virus, making the containment of the disease very difficult. First patients of swine flu were suspected to be people working in pig pens and pig sties, or people visiting livestock exhibits and trade fairs. From the pig-to-human infection, the human-to-human infection is the next mode of infection the virus can take.
Transmission can also occur indirectly, because the virus can survive outside a host, touching a surface or an object fortified with the swine flu virus can cause a person or animal to become sick. Similar to the regular human flu virus, the swine flu virus can also be spread by coughing and sneezing. A person with the swine flu can also infect another person by kissing. When a sick person sneezes or coughs, he sends out the viruses to be airborne, allowing it to be transmitted to other individuals. When a person has become sick or becomes a carrier of the virus, he will continue to be a host for the virus and actively shed the illnesses to another human.
Because the symptoms for human influenza and swine flu are distinctly difficult to tell apart, a confirmation test by collecting a respiratory specimen is taken to the lab for testing. The first four to five days a person has contracted the disease, he will be a carrier to spread the disease to other persons or pigs.
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Tue, Oct 13, 2009
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