Swine Flu Outbreak | 1918 Outbreak, Symptoms, CDC Facts of Swine Flu

Swine flu is the common name of a disease that affects pigs known as swine influenza. Swine flu outbreak in some parts of the world caused a scare in global proportions mainly because the disease can be transferred from animal to humans. In fact, the swine flu 2009 outbreak was one of the most serious outbreaks of the disease that not only affected most economies but also caused a lot of headaches for political leaders as governments were put to test in combating the disease.

1918 Swine Flu Outbreak

The earliest recorded serious outbreak of the disease was the 1918 swine flu outbreak. It was also the first time when the disease was transmitted to humans in the form of the H1N1 disease that affected most of North America and Europe. Since then, experts knew that the virus will mutate and can cause even greater damages in the form of swine flu outbreak in the future. As events were to unfold, history proved them right with the 2009 outbreak just one of the many instances of the disease causing so great a scare to health authorities.

In fact, swine flu outbreak cdc bulletins warn of humans of possible contamination from the disease especially those who are exposed to affected animals. Moreover, there is also the chance that vaccines may not fully work or eliminate the disease totally because the virus is mutating thus enabling it to become more resistant to vaccinations.

Symptoms of Swine Flu

Because of the chance that swine flu may be transmitted to humans, it is important not only to look out for the symptoms in pigs but more importantly to look for signs of contamination in humans.

In pigs, swine flu outbreak symptoms are the following:

• There is general lethargy on the part of the animal for no apparent reason.
• There is difficulty in breathing
• A pig may run fever and may experience sneezing and coughing.
• The pig loses appetite which in turn causes it to lose weight.

It is important to remember that to consider a situation as a swine flu outbreak; the symptoms must be present in most of the pig population in a particular locale.

In humans, the following are the signs of swine flu outbreak:

• An affected person exhibits respiratory problems that were not existent before and accompanied by fever, sneezing, coughing.
• A person may experience fever, muscle soreness and headache.

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