What year was the bird flu first discovered?

Answer 1

No one person is credited with discovering this new flu virus in 2009. It was a joint effort by scientists and doctors in Mexico, the US and the World Health Organization.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigated the virus which was first detected in Mexico City and was made public March 18, 2009. On microscopic evaluation, they determined it was a brand new strain of influenza virus that was causing the illness. They also were the ones to isolate the new virus and grow cultures in the laboratory to be used as the seed stock to create vaccines.

The CDC has scientists from many disciplines working to discover and find solutions for new Infectious Diseases. They go to the site and work to discover what known or new microorganisms are involved. Epidemiologists, microbiologists, doctors, virologists and infectious disease specialists were among the groups who rapidly identified what was causing the spreading illness in Mexico.

The first person identified with the new influenza was in Mexico City and from there it was tracked back to La Gloria, a small village in the south of Mexico, where it is believed that it started infecting people first (although some new evidence suggests that it may have previously been in Asia, which may have actually been the location of the first creation of the new virus and the actual source. This is still being investigated).

The Mexican health authorities and US CDC worked to identify what the new virus was that the woman in Mexico City had. They took culture samples and grew them in culture media and then identified in a lab what the properties of the virus were and compared it to previously known flu strains. When determined it was an entirely new type of flu, an international team of scientists became involved. New strains like that can create significant illness and pandemics since people would have had no prior exposure to have developed immunity.

The need to identify the illness the woman in Mexico City had, so that they could know how to treat the patient, is what drove the epidemiologists and microbiologists to the discovery of the specific, and new, flu strain.

Now there has been a field test kit developed that is used to quickly identify probable Swine Flu cases when it is important to know the specific virus involved. Usually that is not needed since the treatment is the same for all common influenza viruses.

The scientists with the CDC also isolated and grew the virus that causes the swine flu and selected the particular "substrain" to use to make a vaccine. They worked closely with the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) and with the drug manufacturers to design and select the correct vaccine to protect against the new flu in 2009. They added the antigen made from the new virus to the "recipe" for vaccines for other flu viruses that had been used for decades, since the safety and effectiveness of that process had already been proven.

The vaccine for A-H1N1/09 is included again in the 2011-2012 flu season vaccine (it won't hurt to take it again if you had it one of the prior two years). The seasonal flu vaccine also contains vaccine for two other common flu types expected to be circulating in this current flu season.

Answer 2

If you are referring to the vaccine against swine flu, it really was not reinvented for that specific type of flu. Influenza vaccines for the seasonal flu have been being used for decades. The process was the same for making the swine flu vaccine except that they had isolated and grown the virus that causes the swine flu to use to make that portion of the vaccine that contains the antigen (virus). The US CDC worked closely with the FDA and with the drug manufacturers to design and select the correct vaccine to protect against the new flu in 2009.

It is included again in the 2011-2012 flu season vaccine (it won't hurt to take it again if you had it one of the prior two years).

Answer 3

swine flu is an infection caused by pigs or swines

Answer 4

Avian flu must have been common in developing world. But it was obviously detected in developed world. As they had a technology to detect it.

Answer 5

Dr. Rob Webster in 1957.

Answer 6

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