Swine Flu has made many headlines this year and still continues to do so. At current trends according to WebMD, swine flu, properly called H1N1, could infect 12%-24% of Americans this fall and winter. Another estimate according to MSNBC puts a chance of up to 40% of Americans becoming infected. The World Health Organization says swine flu could sicken 2 billion people in 2 years.
Although there is no current vaccine for this particular influenza, a vaccine is expected by the fall. We have compiled a list of interesting facts to help tell a little more about swine flu:
- The classical swine flu virus was isolated from a pig in 1930.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used to receive one human infection every one to two years before the 2009 outbreak.
- Humans can not get swine flu from eating properly cooked pork.
- There are swine flu vaccines for pigs but none yet for humans.
- Amantadine, rimantadine, oseltamivir and zanamivir are four antiviral drugs that have been used to treat H1N1, but the most recent cases have been resistant to amantadine and rimantadine.
- As of July 24, 2009 (the date of this post), there have been 43,771 confirmed cases in the United States and 302 deaths. For a up to date count on these figures visit the CDC’s H1N1 Flu Situation Update.
- More than 70 countries have reported cases of swine flu.
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