April 24, 2009
Herald Sun, Australia
Seven people have been diagnosed with a strange and unusual new kind of swine flu in California and Texas, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
Photo: A man sprays disinfectant on a truckload of live pigs in an effort to control an outbreak of what is believed to be human 'swine flu.' (Frederic J. Brown / AFP - Getty Images)
All seven people have recovered but the virus itself is a never-before-seen mixture of viruses typical among pigs, birds and humans, the CDC said.
"We are likely to find more cases," the CDC's Dr Anne Schuchat said.
"We don't think this is time for major concern around the country."
However, some experts fear this strain, or another strain, could spark a pandemic that could kill millions.
Strange mixture
Unusually, the viruses all appear to carry genes from swine flu, avian flu and human flu viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.
"We haven't seen this strain before, but we hadn't been looking as intensively as we have," Dr Schuchat said.
"It's very possible that this is something new that hasn't been happening before."
The CDC reported the new strain of swine flu on Tuesday in two boys from California's two southernmost counties.
Now, five more cases have been seen - all found via normal surveillance for seasonal influenza.
None of the patients, whose symptoms closely resembled seasonal flu, had any direct contact with pigs.
Human-to-human spread
"We believe at this point that human-to-human spread is occurring," Dr Schuchat said.
"That's unusual. We don't know yet how widely it is spreading.
"We are also working with international partners to understand what is occurring in other parts of the world."
Two of the new cases were among 16-year-olds at the same school in San Antonio "and there's a father-daughter pair in California," Dr Schuchat said.
Surveillance for and scrutiny of influenza has been stepped up since 2003, when highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza reappeared in Asia.
H5N1 currently only rarely infects people but has killed 257 out of 421 infected in 15 countries since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation.
The influenza strain is an H1N1, the same family as one of the seasonal flu viruses now circulating.
Undetectable at home
Now that the normal influenza season is waning, it may be easier to spot cases of the new swine flu, Dr Schuchat said.
Only one of the seven cases was sick enough to be hospitalised and all have recovered.
"This isn't something that a person could detect at home," she said.
The new cases appear to have somewhat more vomiting and diarrhea than is usually seen in flu, which mostly causes coughing, fever, sore throat and muscle aches.
The CDC is already preparing a vaccine against the new strain. The agency will issue daily updates at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swin
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25379257-5005961,00.html