If Italians find themselves in bed with a fever these days, it could very likely be the so-called “swine flu”. According to yesterday’s note from the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), at the moment almost all positive cases are in fact due to infections with the AH1N1pdm09 virus. The person responsible for seasonal ailments, unfortunately in some patients even in severe form, is essentially a strain “deriving from the one that caused the influenza pandemic in 2009-2010, but – reassures the ISS – it is among those normally circulating in the world in recent years.” To avoid ending up in hospital, flu vaccination is essential.
Because it’s called swine flu
“The strain that is circulating – explains the epidemiologist Pier Luigi Lopalco, professor of hygiene at the University of Salento – emerged in Mexico in 2009 and has strong porcine components. But from the point of view of the constitution of the virus and the symptoms, it is a type A influenza virus, it circulates throughout the planet, albeit with mutations which however are not capable of dramatically changing the picture of the disease”. In short, for experts it is not an unknown virus. “The AH1N1pdm09 – specifies Massimo Ciccozzi, professor of Statistical Epidemiology at the Campus Bio-medico University of Rome – presents a recombination in its genome between avian, porcine and human strains”.