United States-The flu pandemic of 1918.

UNITED STATES-COMPARISONS WITH 1918.

The current swine flu virus is bringing up

discussions of the deadly 1918 flu, but aside from having the same designation,

comparisons between the two can be very inaccurate, a leading pathologist said.

Both the current flu bug and the 1918 virus had the same designation of a

type A, H1N1, but this year’s virus is only a distant relative, which makes

comparisons about virulence and immunity difficult.

"Somewhere they are related, maybe 100 years ago," said Juergen Richt,

regents distinguished professor of diagnostic medicine pathology at Kansas

State University ’s College of Veterinary Medicine , of the H1N1 swine flu. "It’s

so distant that the immunity [to the current virus] isn’t very good," he said.

For all intents and purposes, they can be counted as completely different

viruses, pathologists say.

Flu viruses can have the same designations and ancestry but have far

different characteristics, scientists say. For instance, during the last flu

scare, the Asian version of the H5N1 avian influenza virus was designated as a

highly pathogenic virus that occasionally infected humans and even killed some.

Yet a North American H5N1 bird flu virus is a low pathogenic virus that never

infects humans.

The current virus was called a "swine flu" even though no pigs have been

infected with the illness. Viruses "are named after the first animal they were

found in," said Sandy Amass, a Purdue University veterinarian, in a press

release. And the basic building blocks for this one were discovered in pigs

around 1930.

But as the disease spreads to more and more countries, researchers are

scrambling to catch up, and their understanding of the current virus’ makeup

can vary.

Richt said three of the eight "gene segments" that make up the virus are

avian and human and are common. The unusual parts are the five swine segments,

he said. "There are two from Eurasian pigs and three from North American pigs,

and this is something we’ve never seen before," he said.

Richard Webby, associate member of the Department of Infectious Diseases at

St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital , however, said the virus had four

avian, one human and three swine segments. The direct parents were two viruses

that circulate widely in pigs, he said.

One of those swine viruses is common in Europe and the other is common in

North American hogs, Webby said. The Eurasian virus moved into swine from birds

in the 1970s, and the North American version, which has swine, human and avian

parts, has been circulating in North American hogs for at least 10 years, he

said.

Research on the 1918 virus published in the weekly journals Science and

Nature showed that the 1918 flu virus was more closely related to bird flus

than to human flus. It had several similarities to the H5N1 avian flu that has

circulated in Asia since 2003.

Over the course of time, the most virulent viruses have turned out to have

that three-species combination, Richt said. They all seem to have swine, human

and avian genes.

At this stage of the virus’ spread, there is no way to compare it with other

flu viruses, Richt said. Much more data will be needed to tell if it is more or

less deadly than any of the more common viruses that attack each year and kill

thousands, he said.

The Department of Homeland Security is changing the focus of the Immigration & Customs Enforcement efforts. No longer will we see the high-profile ICE raids of packing plants, instead the Feds will work to develop a criminal case against the employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. The new strategy requires federal agents to "obtain indictments, criminal arrest or search warrants, or a commitment from a U.S. attorney’s office to prosecute the targeted employer, before arresting employees for civil immigration violations at a work site."

A DHS spokesman says agents will arrest and process any illegal workers found during the enforcement of these actions. The new strategy also makes more humanitarian considerations which allow authorities to release detainees who are sick or who are sole caregivers for small children.

brownfieldnetwork.com