Are there different forms of Swine Flu?

Answer 1

There are different strains of viruses that have been called Swine Flu over the years. They are similar (all are type A influenza H1N1 subtypes), but different, with slightly different characteristics.

• There was the original swine flu that was the barnyard disease that pigs got and passed to each other (and rarely to a farm worker in daily close contact). It is still around today and mutating into various new forms among the herds of swine.

• There was the Spanish Flu that became a pandemic in 1918 just after WW1. It is now believed it was also a different strain of H1N1, and some speculate that it may have circulated around sporadically between then and relatively recent years in minor outbreaks from time to time.

• There was a strain in 1930 that was identified as one like the swine flu in pigs at the time, but more people were getting this strain than usually got the type in pigs. The laboratory identification of the strain of viruses was much less sophisticated then, so not as much is known about that particular strain. It is believed to have died out or mutated into something else no longer like the 1930 strain, or one still similar but unable to infect humans now due to a mutation.

• Then there was the 1976 Swine Flu that was a slightly different virus strain that surfaced and created concern at first when, unlike most influenza strains at the time, this one infected young healthy soldiers; and the ill-famed 1976 Swine Flu vaccination program was undertaken.

• Today we have the new form of the pandemic that is Type A H1N1/09 which spreads very easily from person to person but luckily is not producing mortality rates as high as seasonal flu does.

See the related questions below for more information.