In recent days Maria Elia, a seventeen-year-old girl from Perugia, died 48 hours after being hospitalized with fever and severe sore throat. Among the causes of death, the experts are still investigating, the hypothesis has also been advanced that it was a case of swine flu.
What is the swine flu virus?
Influenza virus type A / H1N1, also known as swine flu virus, is responsible for the 2009 flu pandemic and has been circulating ever since, reappearing every year in the cocktail of viruses responsible for seasonal flu and against which, on time, a specific vaccine is developed.
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The appearance in 2009 in Mexico
The virus, which appeared in spring 2009 in Mexico, is a combination of viruses from pigs, birds and humans. It was probably in pigs that these old viruses reassorted themselves to give rise to a virus never seen before capable of attacking human cells. It was a short pandemic, that of 2009, declared over after a year, but this does not mean that the H1N1 virus stopped circulating in 2010: it continues to be present all over the world and every winter it contributes to cases of flu.
How it is transmitted
As for normal flu, we read on the website of the Ministry of Health, swine can be transmitted directly (through the small drops of saliva resulting from sneezing, coughing, kissing, very close interviews or through contact with the same glass as an infected person) or indirectly. In this case, the virus is transmitted by contact with hands contaminated by the respiratory secretions of someone who is already ill.
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Is it possible to get infected by eating pork?
The possibility of transmission of the virus by eating pork or products obtained from its processing is excluded, points out the Ministry of Health, but regardless of the flu it is always preferable to eat well-cooked meat (cooking at at least 70-80 °, up to that there are no more rosy parts).
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Symptoms are the same as for seasonal flu, i.e. fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat, body aches, fatigue. In some cases, serious complications can occur. The categories most at risk are the elderly, the frail and people with chronic diseases. Severe symptoms can also be developed by young and healthy people, but only in very rare cases.
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How is it treated? Is there a vaccine?
The drugs used are the same as for seasonal flu. In the vast majority of cases they are drugs for the treatment of symptoms. In some cases antivirals are used. Same goes for the vaccine. The usual seasonal flu vaccine is effective against the new flu virus.