What are some diseases you can call the Swine Flu?

Answer 1

Only a case of influenza would be called Swine Flu. Influenza is a viral infection. There are no other diseases that are called swine flu other than various influenza viral infections.

There is more than one type of influenza that has been called "swine flu". There is the one that only pigs get (or an extremely rare case for a human in very close contact with swine) and it is simply called "Swine flu" and it is referred to as H1N1. It is the original swine flu (hence the name). The first Swine flu viruses were isolated in 1930 in the United States in pigs.

There have been other types of influenza viruses also called swine flu historically. The most famous early swine flu outbreak in humans was in 1976 at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where four soldiers who were previously healthy contracted the virus and developed pneumonia diagnosed by X-ray with other symptoms of the flu. One died as a result. The virus was thought to have circulated approximately a month in the close quarters of the group in basic training but not outside the group, then it disappeared.

In the fall of 1988, a previously healthy 32-year-old pregnant woman was hospitalized for pneumonia and died 8 days later. A swine H1N1 flu virus was detected. Four days before getting sick, the patient visited a county fair swine exhibition where there was widespread influenza-like illness among the swine.

The 2009 pandemic of Influenza A, Novel H1N1 "swine flu" was first detected in Mexico City and was made public March 18, 2009. It is most appropriately referred to as Influenza Type A-H1N1/09 to specify the exact virus (that is different from the prior ones).

See the related questions below for additional names for swine flu and an explanation of the H1N1 nomenclature.