Will Swine Flu get stronger or weaker in the winter?

Answer 1

Influenza viruses are typically more prevalent during the fall and winter colder weather. There is a distinct season for the flu in that part of the year with the annual strains of flu viruses going around even called the "Seasonal Flu". It is expected that Swine Flu (A-H1N1/09) will likely follow that same pattern and reappear in the Northern Hemisphere in a second wave of outbreaks.

It was a second wave of a mutated strain that caused the most illness and deaths during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. However, since we have not experienced this type of flu before, and because it is not acting entirely typically, in that we have sporadic outbreaks continuing all summer in the Northern Hemisphere long after the typical seasonal flu has "faded out", it is at present still unpredictable.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization are monitoring the seasonal and A-H1N1/09 flu outbreaks closely in the Southern Hemisphere to gather as much data as possible on how the virus behaves in the colder weather before the US flu season arrives in October.

We should continue all advised precautions.