Swine flu... the novel virus

The novel virus is a completely new virus against which man has not been confronted with and therefore possess no immunity to lessen its effects unlike normal influenza virus. Its ability to mutate and jump species make it more difficult to predict.Production of vaccine against it would take some time and as the virus continues to physically and chemically evolve, the vaccine might not be, ultimately, as effective as expected and this would mean a great commercial risk to the manufacturer and a dire impact on the human population, especially in developing countries.

Person to person transmission of this novel virus is an essential feature of a pandemic which is declared in stages by WHO (world health organisation). More cases are being reported in a number of countries whose citizens had been to North America and possibly had come in contact with the virus.Pandemic level 6 will only be declared by WHO if there are cases in the community among people who are not in contact with people coming from suspected countries. When there is evidence for this sustained person to person transmission in communities ,then the declaration will be made.

The current strain seems to be sensitive to the antivirals, oseltamivir and zanamivir and this influenza A H1N1 also appears milder than the one in 1918 which killed about 50 million, nonetheless, concern has been expressed that the second wave might be more severe as genetic materials of swine, avian and human interact to produce a "stronger nemesis". So the global fear and local prevention frenzy seem justified all around because we are actually dealing with mostly the unknown!