First of all, let us show some modicum of respect to the hundreds of thousands of pig farmers around the world and forget the word “swine”.
It is not swine flu, it is the H1N1 virus.
While it is a mutated virus, the reality is, if the hype and worst comes to fruition, where it came from will ultimately be a moot point. It is not so much the illness that is the threat, but what it may become if it transforms.
Yes, it originates from an altered version of influenza found in “swine”, but any attribution to the fundamental species is unfair.
Pig farmers in America, are currently losing over $2 million dollars a day.
It is essentially “Zoonosis” (or zoonose) which is where a virus shifts, and is then transmissible easily from animals to humans – or in theory, vice versa.
A huge amount of lethal diseases can be attributed to this. The most famous of these is the bubonic plague, essentially carried by rats, and transmitted through fleas. The most single noted incident in regard to this was the “Black death” a pandemic that occurred roughly in 1350, and reduced the world’s population by nearly 25% (some 100 million).
Other examples include Ebola, Ringworm and Typhus.
Even HIV has a very loose link to this.
HIV/AIDS is currently a pandemic, the world’s worst.
But we must remember that these diseases are at their worst when they become mutated, or in the case of H1N1, is easily transmitted from human to human.
H1N1 and the origins of incorrect names
Swine flu is like the formerly hyped Avian flu, named due to its original host. Essentially, H1N1 (or the avian coded H5N1), is a mutation of influenza – a cousin of the common cold.
Influenza C and Influenza A is an illness prevalent in many animals and humans. The H1N1 virus is essentially a subtype. People have developed swine flu far before the “current crisis” but in very isolated cases.
The Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918, which killed at least 50 million people, was a variant of the H1N1 virus.
To put the media hysteria that comes with disease “name calling” - Spanish Flu received its labelling because Spain at the time had no censorship as a neutral country, hence the most reliable news regarding the illness at the time came from Spain – not the illness itself.
So media, and later history, would refer to this as the Spanish Flu.
Epidemic
Is so named when a certain disease or illness takes effect in the human population, beyond what is expected. Currently, we go through many epidemics in a single year. Most of which we never hear about, or should I say, doesn’t become grave enough for it to reach common media.
It is not to be confused with an Endimec, which is almost like an expected disease that occurs around a consistent demographic of a population. Chicken pox in western cultures, or malaria in African cultures, is an example of this.
Some people would regard obesity as an epidemic, as it has gone beyond what was expected.
But most importantly, before something becomes a pandemic, it must be an epidemic. H1N1 is currently an epidemic. But, so are examples of a common cold.
Epidemics occur constantly, yet we hear nothing about them. According to the American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of 36,000 Americans die each year from the complications of flu.
It that not worth hearing about in the news?
Maybe not, but it does put into perspective the fact that barely 50 people have died from H1N1.
Pandemic
Essentially when an epidemic becomes highly contagious and spreads around the world. According to the World Health Organisation, it is the emergence of a new virus, a mutation of a virus that affects people severely (that is, the viral agents become human to human), and easy and rapid spread.
The announcing of a pandemic means that a new strain has become airborne or easily transmitted; and in effect means that many people will become infected and die.
But, in the three major pandemics of the 20th century, the “kill rate” was about 3%. They are pretty good odds.
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