reply to post by CaptainCaveMan
Hi CaptainCaveMan :-)
Well your not quite right, it is NOT common to catch flu from pigs, however it does happen.
From Wiki
Source
People with regular exposure to pigs are at increased risk of swine flu infection
Canada was the first country to admit that reverse transmission had occured from Humans to pigs, So there is a proven 2 way transmission of the H1N1
virus between Humans and pigs (therefore they are currently also working on a H1N1 vaccine for pigs)
As the H1N1 is a mix of human, Swine and Bird flu I am more concerned with the appearance of H1N1 in poultry in South America
Source
So to be clear, the same virus has shown up in Humans, Pigs and Poultry.. I reiterate it is the same virus, so given the start up of this Virus
earlier on this year it has easily crossed the interspecies divide to include Swine and Poultry in a 2 way transmission.
My concern is not whether Asian countries or even Muslim countries will adopt a vaccination program, but what happens that when this virus appear in
the Asian Sub Continent where bird flu is rife (wild Birds have a better immune system to fight bird flu H5N1 in comparison to domesticated birds such
as Turkeys)
Given that Bird flu H5N1 is spread to humans via infected domesticated birds and given the infection rate of H1N1 in Humans and the apparent
interspecies cross over now including poultry. I fear a cross over will occur at some point in the Asian Sub Continent, which I guess will impact
countries such as Egypt in a devastating way.
Please read the following Who Bird Flu H5N1 update for Egypt
Source
This update confirms the direction of infection in Humans is from the sick birds, sick birds that are displaying the same flu like symptoms
demonstrated in the South America H1N1 infected birds. How will Egyptians tell if a bird is infected with the Swine Flu H1N1 or Bird Flu H5N1 since
the outward symptoms are the same. I wonder if that will lead to a mass cull, not of pigs but of poultry, yet can Egyptians afford to do that? an
awful conundrum.
Hence I fear if it does mutate that way and a major cull does not happen, then that is the part of the world where we may see a combination of the
highly contagious but mild H1N1 mix with the deadly bird flu H5N1 to produce a highly contagious and potentially lethal mutation.
Of the 85 cases of Bird Flu H5N1 in Egypt, 27 have been fatal.
So to be honest given that this can be passed to humans from swine and poultry, which will only partially be covered in any H1N1 vaccination process,
I am uncertain how effective any human vaccine will actually be to Muslim or non Muslim. Since this virus can cross the interspecies divide and
return in a mutated format that will eventually mutate around this vaccine, that is unless we vaccinate all birds as well as all humans and all pigs,
which won't happen.
Will this mutate or combine with H5N1, I guess we will have to wait and see, but my best guess is that it will.
Edited for Errors and clarity.. lots of errors witl little clarity whoops :-)
[edit on 13-9-2009 by thoughtsfull]