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Investigators await samples in swine flu outbreak

Fri, 24th April, 2009 - Posted by Joshuah

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The story from CNN.com

U.S. medical experts investigating a novel swine flu outbreak awaited samples Thursday night from Mexico, where a respiratory illness has killed as many as 20 people.

Seven cases of a previously undetected strain of swine flu have been confirmed in humans in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. None of the patients had direct contact with pigs.

Five of the cases were found in California, and two in Texas, near San Antonio, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s interim deputy director for science and public health program.

The Mexican samples were to be tested at the centers based in Atlanta, Georgia, spokesman David Daigle told CNN by e-mail. He would not confirm that the samples were related to the respiratory outbreak, but said the CDC “understand Canada has samples, and is testing, and has placed a travel alert for travel to Mexico.”

The Public Health Agency of Canada issued a respiratory alert for Mexico on Wednesday, recommending that health providers “actively look for cases” in Canada, particularly in people who’ve returned from Mexico within two weeks.

The CDC reported Tuesday that two California children in the San Diego area were infected with a virus called swine influenza A H1N1, whose combination of genes had not been seen before in flu viruses in humans or pigs.

The new virus has genes from North American swine and avian influenza; human influenza; and swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC’s Influenza Division.

Swine flu is caused by type A influenza, according to the CDC. It does not normally infect humans, but cases have occurred among people, especially those with exposure to pigs.

And this, from ars.usda.gov in 2007

New Swine Flu Has Avian Flu Genes
By Ann Perry

December 19, 2007

Researchers have identified a new strain of swine influenza—H2N3—which
belongs to the group of H2 influenza viruses that last infected humans
during the 1957 pandemic. This new strain has a molecular twist: It is
composed of avian and swine influenza genes.

Influenza A virus subtypes H1N1, H1N2, H3N1 and H3N2 are all known to cause SIV infections. Also recently H2N3.  Via Wikipedia

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