Swine Flu Raising More Questions Than Answers While the U.S. Sees Its First Fatality
Posted by Jacqueline Colclough
Amid international efforts preparing for a possible pandemic due to growing numbers of confirmed cases of A/H1N1 influenza virus, or swine flu, investigations are raising more questions than answers. Is this swine flu? How did it start, and how lethal is it? According to CNN.com, the United States has now suffered its first fatality from swine flu – a 23 month old child in Texas.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is sending a team to Mexico to investigate the connection between pigs and this virus. Until findings are reported, however, there is no evidence that this latest new strain is actually swine flu and that it started in pigs. Joseph Domenech, chief veterinarian of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, said in an interview on BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight that one of the goals the investigators will be pursuing will be to rule out the possibility that pigs were involved in the genesis of the new virus, and also to establish an appropriate response to the possibility that pigs may catch the virus from humans. Domenech said that all we know is that the virus contains pieces of genes from "human, avian and pig origin", and "this crisis should not have been named swine influenza".
For more information about this developing story, please see Medical News Today and PandemicFlu.gov, the U. S. government's informational site about pandemic flu.
For previous posts about swine flu on the DC Metro Area Medical Malpractice Law Blog, please see the following: