Swine Flu Origin | Swine Flu Originated from Pig and Factory Farms?

The year 2009 has a lot in common with the years 1918, 1976, and 1998 in the medical front. These years marked the time when the world was put to the edge due to swine flu outbreaks. What is worthy of notice is that each new outbreak is represented by a new strain of virus that seems to be more resilient than the previous outbreak.

And each outbreak presents a question that was also echoed during the previous outbreak: what is the swine flu origin?

Swine Flu Origination

In order to track swine flu, it is best if the previous outbreaks of the disease will be tackled individually because of the uniqueness that each outbreak seems to bring.

Although swine flu origin is supposed to have come from pigs as suggested by the name, there is a lot more to it than that. In fact, even if swine flu originate from pigs as its very nomenclature suggest, humans are very much involved in tracing swine flu origin.

1918 Swine Flu Outbreak

This is the first recorded swine flu outbreak. Here, it is thought that swine flu originated from pigs but investigations by medical experts reveal a more disturbing fact: that the virus that caused swine flu may have come from humans and were transmitted to pigs. This is made more plausible that prior to the outbreak of swine flu, there was an outbreak of influenza among humans. In the end, the question of swine flu origin is something that still eludes experts.

1976 Swine Flu Outbreak

The almost six decades that separated the first outbreak from the next one was thought to have been enough of a barrier to think that swine flu origination does not display similarity with previous outbreaks. Here, many were proven wrong when the strain in the 1976 outbreak was discovered to have a lot of similarities with the strain in the 1918 outbreak. In any case, swine flu origin of the 1976 outbreak began in humans and not in pigs.

1998 Swine Flu Outbreak

The 1998 outbreak is in the books as the first time in history that three strains of the virus from pigs, birds, and humans combined to form a strong strain of the virus. What this outbreak reveals is that pigs serve as the link of the virus in infecting humans.

2009 Swine Flu Outbreak

The 2009 swine flu origin is thought to be from humans. However, there were reports that pigs were also affected but these have been in small numbers only. Although deaths were very low compared to the number of people affected, it nonetheless caused a global scare.

November 6, 2009 | Filed Under Communicable Diseases

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