About swine flu
What is swine flu / influenza A (H1N1)?
Swine flu is an infectious disease of pigs caused by flu viruses that occur naturally in pigs. Swine flu viruses do not usually infect humans (although sometimes this does occur – usually in people who have had close contact with pigs), but occasionally they mutate in a way that allows them to infect other animals, and sometimes people.
What is new about this type of flu?
The virus currently causing concern is a new strain (version) of influenza A of a type known as H1N1 – a type which regularly causes normal seasonal flu in people. There is concern that this strain could potentially cause pandemic flu.
What is pandemic flu?
Pandemic flu is flu that spreads rapidly causing widespread epidemics around the world. If the flu becomes pandemic, potentially everyone is at risk of catching it because few people, if any at all, will have immunity (resistance) to it.
In contrast to the ‘ordinary’ or ‘seasonal’ flu outbreaks which we see every winter in the UK, flu pandemics occur infrequently – usually every few decades. There were three in the last century.
What are the symptoms?
The symptoms of swine flu are broadly the same as those of ordinary flu, but may be more severe and cause more serious complications.
The typical symptoms are:
- sudden fever
- sudden cough
Other symptoms may include:
- headache
- tiredness
- chills
- aching muscles
- limb or joint pain
- diarrhoea or stomach upset
- sore throat
- runny nose
- sneezing
- loss of appetite
If you have any of these symptoms but a flu pandemic has not been announced, you could have seasonal flu.
