How to Beat Swine Flu Naturally (2)

Influenza occurs every year around the world in seasonal epidemics killing thousands of people. Millions of people are killed when it is a pandemic. Two influenza pandemics occurred in the 20th century and killed tens of millions of people, with each of these pandemics being caused by the appearance of a new strain of the virus in humans. Often, these new strains appear when an existing flu virus spreads to humans from other 


animal species, or when an existing human strain picks up new genes from a virus that usually infects birds or pigs. An avian strain named H5N1 raised the concern of a new influenza pandemic, after it emerged in Asia in the 1990s, but it's not evolved to a form that spreads easily between people.



What is Swine Influenza?
Swine flu is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza virus that regularly causes outbreaks of influenza in pigs. Swine flu viruses cause high levels of disease and low death rates in pigs. Swine influenza viruses may circulate among swine throughout the year, but most outbreaks occur during the late fall and winter months similar to outbreaks in humans. The classical swine flu virus (an influenza type A H1N1 virus) was first isolated from a pig in 1930. Like all influenza viruses, swine flu viruses change constantly. Pigs can be infected by avian, human as well as swine influenza viruses. When influenza viruses from different species infect pigs, the viruses can swap genes and generate new viruses that are a mix of swine, human and/or avian influenza viruses.