Dec 28, 2012
Dec 20, 2012
(CIDRAP News) – Researchers report that swine and human influenza A/H3N2 viruses associated with an Ohio county fair held in July make a nearly perfect genetic match, suggesting that there is almost no biological barrier to prevent such viruses from passing between humans and pigs.
(CIDRAP News) – Eleven of 16 hospitalized US cases of variant H3N2 (H3N2v) swine-origin influenza this past summer occurred in Ohio, and 10 of those were in children, according to a report that also suggests that even healthy people stay away from pigs at fairs to avoid flu infection.
(CIDRAP News) – Researchers who spent the past 3 years testing pigs for influenza A viruses at county fairs in Ohio found that infected animals commonly appear clinically normal, highlighting one of the challenges health officials faced in preventing the spread of variant influenza to humans at fairs this summer.
(CIDRAP News) – A Korean-US research team has identified an H1N2 strain of swine influenza capable of killing ferrets and spreading among them by respiratory droplets, underlining the continuing threat of swine flu to humans amid a wave of swine-origin flu cases in Americans exposed to pigs at agricultural fairs.
(CIDRAP News) – The swine-origin H1N2 virus found in three Minnesotans last week carries the matrix gene from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus, marking the first time such a virus has been found in humans, according to state and federal health officials.
(CIDRAP News) – Three people contracted H1N2 influenza infections, a strain very rarely seen in humans, after exposure to pigs at the Minnesota State Fair in the Twin Cities, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced this afternoon.
(CIDRAP News) – The type of flu transmission occurring mainly in young people directly exposed to pigs at fairs this summer is unprecedented, and health officials should consider keeping pigs away from the events, according to one infectious disease expert who has gone on record with his concerns.
Minnesota health officials today reported the state's first cases of the novel H3N2 flu mainly linked to contact with pigs at agricultural fairs. And with cases of H3N2v climbing across the nation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently urged schools to be on the lookout for infections.
