What is the difference in the "swine" flu and just the "flu"?

[Blue_Roses]

They are the same symptoms. I had the flu a few weeks ago and the doctor said it has to "run it's course" because antibiotics didn't work against it. Tamiflu was given but still didn't make much difference.

Here's the info on swine flu:

The swine flu is a viral infection that originates from pigs. It was first isolated from pigs in the 1930s. Antibiotics do not help. Symptoms of infection with the swine flu are similar to the the regular influenza virus most are familiar with. Most infected will do fine. Those who are immune compromised, older or pregnant may be at higher risk of complications or serious respiratory illness. The most common symptoms include:

• Cough
• Congestion
• Nasal Congestion
• Body aches
• Joint Pains
• Fevers
• Sore throat
• Headaches
• Fatigue
• Decreased energy
• Rarely death


Here are the symptons of the flu:
Flu symptoms can be mild or severe — and if they’re mild can become severe without much notice. Be aware of your body and monitor your body temperature. Flu symptoms can come on suddenly — be sure you know your treatment and prevention options so you can be prepared.

The common symptoms of the flu include:

* Fever (usually high)
* Headache
* Muscle aches
* Chills
* Extreme tiredness
* Dry cough
* Runny nose may also occur but is more common in children than adults
* Stomach symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, may also occur but are more common in children than adults

[mike_c]

1. influenza is characterized in different ways, including wild host type....

The Wikipedia article on influenza does a pretty good job of describing them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza

[dflprincess]

2. An article in the London Times did mention that we have only

been hearing about the extreme cases. For all we know this may have been floating around and people have been getting sick with it for several weeks.

Last month I had what I though was an awful cold, now I wonder what it may have been (and I wonder about some of ailments friends and family have had over the last couple months). I've had a Type A influenza in the past and that may give some immunity to this bug so it's not impossible that I've had (or would have) a milder case.

[Blue_Roses]

6. I got sick about three weeks ago and still have

the cough and congestion. I had high fever for a few days and I was MISERABLE! I had all the symptoms listed--and I live in Texas! so who knows...

also, I love ham ;)

[madrchsod]

12. you too? i`ve had pretty much the same thing

up here in illinois it was 80 last friday and i felt pretty good after the temp dropped and the rains started...yuck.

[librechik]

3. every once in awhile a flu strain comes along which is radical in design (as it were)

so that people who ordinarily would have some resistance from previous flu exposure simply don't have the T cells fo the new strain. Therefore more get sick, and symptoms more severe.

[MadHound]

4. So far, about thirty six thousand deaths in this country annually

That's how many people are killed by the regular plain old seasonal flu.

The swine flu on the other hand has killed what, one person in this country.

[Recursion]

5. Swine flu kills a few hundred, regular flu tens of thousands

That's probably the biggest difference

[mike_c]

10. lots of misconception about this....

Swine flu IS "regular flu." It's an H1N1 type A influenza virus.

Influenza is a genetically diverse beast that evolves very rapidly-- it's the rapid evolution that creates so many variants. The variants are all still the same "species" in as far as the species concept can be applied to viruses, which is mainly by analogy. One of the ways flu can evolve is by recombination with parts of the genome from other flu variants when these occur together in the same host. This is fundamentally no different than the genetic recombination that takes place during sexual reproduction in humans, which still results in "regular" people (just to be clear, the mechanisms are different, but the result is fundamentally similar).

The swine flu is unique among currently circulating flu varieties because it contains parts of the genomes of flu varieties that normally infect bird, parts from flu that normally infects humans, and parts from flu that normally infects pigs. Influenza does this all the time-- every "regular flu" variety has some genetic history just like this. This particular combination is one that has never been seen before, just like your genome is a combination of genes that is unique. But you're still human, nonetheless, and swine flu is still type A H1N1 influenza.

[aquart]

11. Missing the point much?

Mexican flu is killing YOUNG HEALTHY ADULTS IN EARLY SPRING. Wrong demo, wrong time. That's what's scaring the wits out of world governments.

Then again, there's the documentation that the 1918 pandemic came in three stages: early summer, MILD. Fall and winter, DEADLY.

Will it play out that way? NOBODY KNOWS. That's why they are getting ready. JUST IN CASE.

[backscatter712]

7. Swine flu is a specific kind of influenza.

Most garden-variety influenzas have been going from human to human for a long time, mutating a little bit, gradually changing to a form that immune systems that fought off last year's variety don't quite recognize. It sees a few pieces, but doesn't quite recognize the virus, and the result for most people is a few days of fever, cough, sniffles, the usual symptoms, and such before the immune system catches on and beats down this year's virus.

Swine flu is named such because it came from pigs. Actually, it only mostly came from pigs, but a pig sneezed, passed it to a human, which is fairly difficult for viruses because it's jumping the species barrier. Anyways, it mixed with a human variety of influenza, got some of its genes, and the result is a virus that passes from human to human easily, but has so much new stuff on its proteins that human immune systems have no idea what it is. Throw in some random genes from avian influenza that have been floating around and you've got this year's flavor.

Thus the vaccines we have currently won't work on swine flu. There's no herd immunity because the proteins in the virus are so novel, so it's likely to spread like wildfire. Swine flu is also more dangerous than other flus because it may cause the immune system to freak out and cause a cytokine storm - the result is that your lungs get chewed up and clogged full of snot (essentially a form of pneumonia,) and some people die from it. Sometimes, healthy young adults die from cytokine storms.

Don't panic too much. For most people, if they get it, it'll be a few days of fever, chills, cough, sniffles, then the immune system will do its job and beat the virus down. It's just that the risks of something going wrong in the immune system are probably a bit higher - there's a lot of complex biological behavior moderated by chemical messages - with this virus, there's a higher likelihood (but still in single-digit-percentages) that there will be a chemical message misfire in the immune system, causing a cytokine storm.

It's not quite up there with Captain Trips, but epidemiologists are pretty concerned.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. We have some sort of flu here. Have all of the symptoms of regular flu except

the cough. As to the swine flu, we are lacking the cough and sore throat, but also have the stomach issues. Been going on for over a week now and we are darned tired of it!

[Lex]

9. swine flu evidently has a better PR firm

nt