Posted on 07/09/2009 12:15:12 PM PDT by dan_s
Humans may give swine flu to pigs in new twist to pandemic
(Excerpted)
The strain of influenza, A/H1N1, that is currently pandemic in humans has been shown to be infectious to pigs and to spread rapidly in a trial pig population.
In research published today in Journal of General Virology, Dr Thomas Vahlenkamp and a team of virologists from the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut in Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany, experimentally infected five pigs with the strain of swine flu that is causing the current human pandemic. Within four days the virus had spread to three un-infected pigs housed with the infected ones and all pigs were showing clinical signs of swine flu.
“Although in the early stages of the swine flu pandemic there were worries that humans would catch the virus from pigs, this has so far not been documented and pigs and other animals have not been involved in the current spread of A/H1N1 influenza in humans,” said Dr Vahlenkamp, “However, with the increasing numbers of human infections, a spill over of this human virus to pigs is becoming more likely.
The prevention of human-to-pig transmissions should have a high priority in order to avoid involvement of pigs in the epidemiology of this pandemic”.
Although the virus spread quickly to the non-infected pigs, it did not spread to five chickens that were housed together with the pigs.
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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/sfgm-hmg070809.php
Yes , you are correct . The swine flu is causing vomiting and diarrhea in some patients .
Thu Jul 9, 2009 6:40pm EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Fourteen Britons who had contracted H1N1 flu have died and the rapid spread of infection in two areas of the country is close to epidemic level, health officials said on Thursday.
The Department of Health said Britain now had 9,718 laboratory-confirmed cases, the third most in the world behind the United States and Mexico.
Britain's Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson said the actual number of cases was likely to be higher.
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