"
University of Wisconsin researchers, partly funded by the Emerging
Infectious Disease department of the CDC, reported in 2002 that pigs
had a definite role in generating genetically novel viruses, and even
urged that monitoring swine farmers "might be prudent."
"
Better still, don't eat pork at all.
Swine flu studied since the 1960s
Monday May 4, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- While public health officials
are urging calm, emphasizing that the threat of the H1N1 virus may be
easing, "we are not out of the woods yet," said Dr. Richard of the
Centers for Disease Control on a Fox News broadcast Sunday.
The CDC web site early Sunday listed 226 confirmed cases of the swine
flu, which has spread into 30 states. But Bloomberg later reported
that 241 swine flu cases had been reported in 34 states.
Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC was cited by Bloomberg as saying the
increase may be due in part to a backlog of specimen and testing
results.
On the international front, the World Health Organization stated on
its website Sunday that 18 countries have officially reported 898
cases of H1N1 infection. In Mexico alone there are 506 confirmed human
cases of infection, including 19 deaths. The increase is purportedly
due to the fact that results from previously collected specimens are
just now in.
Swine flu cases were also reported from Austria (1), Canada (85),
China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1), Costa Rica (1),
Denmark (1), France (2), Germany (8), Ireland (1), Israel (3), Italy
(1), Netherlands (1), New Zealand (4), Republic of Korea (1), Spain
(40), Switzerland (1) and the United Kingdom (15).
Pigs are not believed to be the vehicles spreading the H1N1 virus in
the outbreak; however, Canada reported on May 2 that the virus has
been detected in a swine herd in Alberta. Nevertheless, WHO said the
pigs likely got the virus from a Canadian farm worker who had recently
returned from Mexico with flu-like symptoms.
And while the path and severity of the virus both remain unclear,
scientists have been cautioning about the "pandemic potential" of the
swine flu virus since August of2002 . Although cooked pork is believed
to be safe to eat, a CDC funded study suggested that pigs can be the
originators of a swine flu outbreak.
University of Wisconsin researchers, partly funded by the Emerging
Infectious Disease department of the CDC, reported in 2002 that pigs
had a definite role in generating genetically novel viruses, and even
urged that monitoring swine farmers "might be prudent."
"Because pigs can play a role in generating genetically novel
influenza viruses," wrote the researchers, "swine farmers may
represent an important sentinel population to evaluate the emergence
of new pandemic influenza viruses."
In the report, Dr. Christopher Olsen, leader of the study, referred to
previous investigations into the swine flu virus done in the1960s:
"Previous studies by Kluska et.al in the 1960 s suggested increased
rates of infection among persons in contact with pigs or working with
swine influenza viruses," he wrote, confirming the virus can come from
the farm animals.
Olsen wrote that infections of humans with swine flu viruses were
actually first verified by isolating swine influenza viruses from both
pigs and their caretaker on a farm in southern Wisconsin in November
1976.
In the 2002 study, Olsen and his team evaluated "seropositivity," or
a positive serum reaction to swine and human influenza viruses. The
study included 74 swine farm owners and their employees in rural south-
central Wisconsin. Participants included 44 men, aged 13 to 59 years,
and 35 women aged seven to 57 years. The control group included 114
urban Milwaukee residents.
"The difference in the seropositive samples between the farm
participants and urban control cohorts was statistically significant,"
says the study.
The positive reactions to the virus were "significantly associated
with being a farm owner, or a farm family member, living on a farm, or
entering the swine barn more than four days a week," said Olsen and
his colleagues wrote. "In addition, pigs are clearly recognized as
hosts in which genetic reassortment between human and avian viruses
can produce novel strains of pandemic potential."
The researchers concluded that "given the frequency with which swine
farm workers in our study were exposed to influenza viruses from pigs,
close monitoring may be prudent."
But it's really unknown where the virus that caused the current
outbreak came from.
(Written by Sheilah Downey and edited by Rachel stockton)
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