Two California swine flu cases may indicate emerging influenza pandemic, investigators say.
The Washington Post reports, “Public health authorities are investigating two highly unusual cases of a previously unknown strain of swine flu that was found in the San Diego area late last month. “ How short our memory is. About 30 years ago (1976) there was an outbreak of ”Swine flu” at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The public health community went ballistic, as usual.. Millions of people were immunized against this flu and hundreds of people developed Guillian Barre syndrome. The outbreak never extended outside Fort Dix, I was at EVMA at the time. A group of use sampled swine at the large pig farms in southeast Virginia, as well as staff at the abattoirs. Nearly everyone we tested had antibodies against swine flu. There was no evidence of deleterious outcome among the abattoir workers. The primary physicians in the area had not noticed any pandemics,. Here we go again, with antibodies found in two people. Perhaps before we scream pandemic (for which we have no vaccine) we will find out what the antibody level is among swine in the area and what the antibody level is in those exposed the swine.
