Haynes.tv

Swine Flu continues to spread throughout the world today, and is now confirmed in 13 nations and suspected in up to 27 more nations all over the world. Today we remain at phase 5 alert status out 6 phases on the World Health Organization’s warning system. Below is a chart of their warning system.

Still no one knows for sure where swine flu orginated, but it is suspected to have come from Mexico, altough Mexico has sought to point to its orgins elsewhere. It is through to have Zoonotic ogrins, meaning the disease likely crossed over from animals. There are prevention mentions for Zoonotic disease you which you can find here. Unforutnately it is a little late for them now, unless you are going to visit the pig farm, then make sure you take a look at them.

Swine flu is currently treatable with the flu drugs Tamiflu or Relenza, but not with two older flu medications. Currently there are no vaccines for swine flu.

The only prevent methods are the good old fashion ones such as covering your mouth when you cough washing your head regularly, and staying away from others when you are sick.

Still no one knows for sure where swine flu originated, but it is suspected to have come from Mexico, although Mexico has sought to point to its origins elsewhere. It is through to have Zoonotic origins, meaning the disease likely crossed over from animals.

There are prevention mentions for Zoonotic disease you which you can find here. Unfortunately it is a little late for them now, unless you are going to visit the pig farm, then make sure you take a look at them.

The current strain going around is called the H1N1 H and N stand for the two viral proteins, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N), characteristic of all influenza A viruses the numbers after the viral proteins represent genetic mutations in the structure of the proteins. For some reason the virus has been more lethal in Mexico thus far; perhaps because of reduced access to health care and the poor living conditions in much of Mexico.

With Avian flu I recall it was the H5N1 variant they were really worried about, and I believe they are still concerned about the possibility of the H6N1 crossing over to humans. Likewise with swine flu I think our biggest concern is if it mutates into another variant that cannot be treated with our current antiviral medications.

There are also theory circulating that the swine flu may have been cooked up in lab somewhere, as some sort of population control method to help curve global warming. This is because of its high geographical diversity. Although, that is not necessarily true in today’s world of globalization it is still a possibility, as no one knows for sure the origins.

What they do know is the characteristics:
The new virus has genes from North American swine influenza, avian influenza, human influenza and a form of swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC’s Influenza Division.

Now as I have said before I am opposed to many aspects of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Mutations here are solely a micoevolutionary thing they will lead to any new species or any radically different virus. If it mutates the virus will still have the same basic structure and the two same proteins hemagglutinin and neuraminidase just slightly different organization.

Within the virus genome they are not creating new genes they are simply rearranging current and preexisting genetic materials. The influenza A viral genome consists of eight negative-sense RNA segments that can generate new variants by genetic reassortment.1

In fact virus are not even alive, as they cannot even function without a host organism. They are stripped down parasites. In fact it is likely their simplicity, and not their complexity that allows them to be so adaptable. As they don’t need much material of their own. Granted they are still very complex for our understanding but comparative to the genetic material in the human genome they are not. Also, being that influenza is an RNA virus it is much more flexible than a DNA based virus, RNA while only a half helix and therefore replicates much easier.




WHO PANDEMIC ALERT PHASES
# Phase 1: No viruses circulating among animals causing infections in humans
# Phase 2: Animal influenza virus causes infection in humans, and is considered potential pandemic threat
# Phase 3: Influenza causes sporadic cases in people, but no significant human-to-human transmission
# Phase 4: Verified human-to-human transmission able to cause community-level outbreaks. Significant increase in risk of a pandemic
# Phase 5: Human-to-human transmission in at least two countries. Strong signal pandemic imminent
# Phase 6: Virus spreads to another country in a different region. Global pandemic under way

‡ Not all cases have been confirmed to be due to this strain.
Some are cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) that have not been confirmed through testing to be due to this strain.


Untied States	Cases
State	Laboratory confirmed	Probable	Suspected‡	Deaths Confirmed (unconfirmed)‡
Total	94	143+	477+	1
Texas	16	14+	6+	1
New York	51	8+	75	0
California	14	29	-	0
Maine	3	-	12+	0
Michigan	2	1	2	0
Massachusetts	2	-	2	0
Kansas	2	-	0	0
Indiana	1	2	0	0
Ohio	1	1	9	0
Arizona	1	-	24+	0
Nevada	1	-	0	0
South Carolina	0	17	-	0
Arkansas	0	12	0	0
Delaware	0	10	0	0
Illinois	0	9	0	0
New Jersey	0	7	0	0
Louisiana	0	6	0	0
Maryland	0	6	0	0
Washington	0	6	0	0
Connecticut	0	3	5	0
Wisconsin	0	3	0	0
Iowa	0	2	150	0
Colorado	0	2	0	0
Minnesota	0	1	50+	0
Tennessee	0	1	10	0
Nebraska	0	1	6	0
Missouri	0	1	0	0
Pennsylvania	0	1	0	0
Utah	0	1	0	0
Rhode Island	0	3	0	0
Alabama	0	2	29	0
Florida	0	0	80	0
Oregon	0	0	14	0
North Carolina	0	-	11	0
Mississippi	0	-	10	0
New Mexico	0	0	5	0
Idaho	0	-	4	0
Hawaii	0	0	3+	0
Oklahoma	0	-	1	0
New Hampshire	0	-	TBD	0