Swine Flu H1N1

by Wilfred Bereswill

Since you can’t turn on the television or radio without hearing about the swine flu, I thought I’d blog a bit about the flu bug. As you may or may not know, A Reason For Dying, my first book is about a natural viral outbreak that’s mistaken for an act of terrorism. The sequel, A Reason For Terror is about the bird flu (H5N1).

So what is it about birds and pigs and flu that causes this connection? Well, birds and pigs are susceptible to human viruses. Also, flu strains tend to mutate in birds and pigs and then transfer to humans.

Another question to ask is why some strains of flu seem to be bad and some fizzle out with nary a cough and a sneeze. Flu strains constantly change. That’s why we can’t wipe them out like we have some other viruses. They are the smallest form of life and they are survivalist. Some strains just don’t do that much damage to the human anatomy and others don’t survive as long outside the body making them not as communicable. Many new flu strains seem to originate in Asia and one school of thought it is the way family farms are structured contribute to mutating flu strains.

Small farms in Asia are constrained for space. Chicken pens are suspended off the ground and the area beneath is used to raise pigs. The perfect environment for growing and culturing mutating flu strains. The birds (remember they are susceptible to human strains of flu) defecate and the pigs who live beneath them are exposed to the feces which can be contaminated with flu. The strain can mutate in the pigs and when they defecate, the farmers remove it and toss it in ponds which act as a nutrient for algae that carp (grass eating fish) eat.



However, ducks living in the ponds are then exposed to the viruses infected pig feces and the strain can mutate once again. Ducks are raised for food and during the processing, humans catch the flu and things go round and round.

It will be interesting to see how bad this particular strain winds up being and if all the hoopla is for naught.

The Blue Flu, The Spanish Lady, The Great Influenza… These were all names used for the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918. It had more casualties than World War I. It is thought that the flu actually started, not in Spain as the name implies, but in 1917 in Kansas. Camp Funston at Fort Reilly. There were many reported cases of flu in troops that were preparing for the war.

The flu, went across the ocean with our troops, probably mutated there where it killed millions of people and then came back across the ocean with our troops to Camp Devens near Boston Mass.



This flu, seemed to target young healthy people rather than the old and young. Meaning that the troops that had survived the horrors of the war, returned to find themselves dying by an enemy that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. In fact, it probably couldn’t be seen by any instrument in use at the time.

The flu ravaged the United States in 1919 and by the time the pandemic was over, a hundred million were dead.

Be careful out there, and don’t fool around with Mother Nature. I know I certainly need to since I have 2 days left this year if I’m sick. So, are you concerned about the flu? Or are you thinking all the hype is nothing to worry about?

Now to leave you with something happy. I found this little video and wanted to share.