Well before we look into what is happening around the world, let’s have a look at what swine flu is.

First what is Swine Flu?

Swine flu is a respiratory disease which infects pigs.

Caused by influenza type A, there are regular outbreaks among herds of pigs, where the disease causes high levels of illness but is rarely fatal.

It tends to spread in autumn and winter but can circulate all year round.

There are many different types of swine flu and like human flu, the infection is constantly changing. 

Can we humans catch the swine flu?

Swine flu does not normally infect humans, although sporadic cases do occur – usually in people who have had close contact with pigs.

There have also been rare documented cases of humans passing the infection to other humans.

Human-to-human transmission of swine flu is thought to spread in the same way as seasonal flu – through coughing and sneezing.

In the latest outbreak it is clear that the disease is being passed from person to person.

Is the new outbreak a new type of swine flu?

The World Health Organization has confirmed that at least some of the cases are a never-before-seen version of the H1N1 strain of influenza type A.

H1N1 is the same strain which causes seasonal outbreaks of flu in humans on a regular basis.

But this latest version of H1N1 is different: it contains genetic material that is typically found in strains of the virus that affect humans, birds and Pigs.

Flu viruses have the ability to swap genetic components with each other, and it seems likely that the new version of H1N1 resulted from a mixing of different versions of the virus, which may usually affect different species, in the same animal host.

All above information is from Wiki and BBC news web sites.

Great Swine Flu Epidemic So what has happened so far?

According to reports from around the world the swine flu los cabos in Mexico, where so far around 1500 people have contacted the Mexico swine flu with 101 none to have died. Bring this to 2% fatality rate.  In the U.S. there have been 11 cases from seven people in California, two in Texas, and two in Kansas.

There are also eight suspected cases in New York City after 200 students at a high school fell ill. Also two people have been admitted to a hospital in Scotland with flu-like symptoms after returning from Mexico. Also there have been cases across Europe and a far a field as New Zealand. But yet there have been no fatalities anywhere but Mexico. With this is in mind the CDC and WHO have stated that the deaths in Mexico could be linked to another virus that has mixed with the swine flu casing a much more server strain.

But the WHO can not rule out that this could turn in to a world wide pandemic. If this is true and a 2% fatality rate that could mean 125 million people could die. That is if every person on the planet had the virus.

Other Flu Pandemics

1918: The Spanish flu pandemic remains the most devastating outbreak of modern times. Caused by a form of the H1N1 strain of flu, it is estimated that up to 40% of the world’s population were infected, and more than 50 million people died, with young adults particularly badly affecteed

1957: Asian flu killed two million people. Caused by a human form of the virus, H2N2, combining with a mutated strain found in wild ducks. The impact of the pandemic was minimised by rapid action by health authorities, who identified the virus, and made vaccine available speedily. The elderly were particularly vulnerable 

1968: An outbreak first detected in Hong Kong, and caused by a strain known as H3N2, killed up to one million people globally, with those over 65 most likely to die

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