Captain Trips Update
While the H5N1 bird virus that spread across Asia in the last few years...
killing millions of fowl and several hundred people, never gained genes to spread easily among humans, the Mexican swine flu already has.
As many as 81 deaths in Mexico were linked to the virus, normally transmitted among pigs.
Eleven cases in California, Kansas and Texas, all of them mild, have been connected as well.
This new variant of an old bug has gene swapping abilities and can mutate readily and can become virulent by exchanging genes with related influenza viruses.
The WHO’s pandemic threat level, a six-stage measure, is currently at 3. Evidence of increased human-to-human spread of a new virus would move it to level 4.
Flu germs are classified by two proteins, one known by the letter H, for hemagglutinin, and the other N, for neuraminidase.
The Mexican swine flu is an H1N1 flu, the same subtype that caused the pandemic of 1918.
Good news? The dominant form of flu circulating in the U.S. in the most recent flu season was an H1N1, which may give immunity to those who contracted it.
killing millions of fowl and several hundred people, never gained genes to spread easily among humans, the Mexican swine flu already has.
As many as 81 deaths in Mexico were linked to the virus, normally transmitted among pigs.
Eleven cases in California, Kansas and Texas, all of them mild, have been connected as well.
This new variant of an old bug has gene swapping abilities and can mutate readily and can become virulent by exchanging genes with related influenza viruses.
The WHO’s pandemic threat level, a six-stage measure, is currently at 3. Evidence of increased human-to-human spread of a new virus would move it to level 4.
Flu germs are classified by two proteins, one known by the letter H, for hemagglutinin, and the other N, for neuraminidase.
The Mexican swine flu is an H1N1 flu, the same subtype that caused the pandemic of 1918.
Good news? The dominant form of flu circulating in the U.S. in the most recent flu season was an H1N1, which may give immunity to those who contracted it.
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