User:Pandemics/2009 flu pandemic
Medical condition / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2009 flu pandemic or swine flu was an influenza pandemic that lasted from early 2009 to late 2010, and the second of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus (the first of them being the 1918–1920 Spanish flu pandemic), albeit in a new version. First described in April 2009, the virus appeared to be a new strain of H1N1 which resulted when a previous triple reassortment of bird, swine and human flu viruses further combined with a Eurasian pig flu virus,[2] leading to the term "swine flu".[3] It is estimated that 11–21% of the global population contracted the illness, and 151,000–579,000 died [4].
Pandemic H1N1/09 Influenza | |
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Electron microscope image of the reassorted H1N1 influenza virus. The viruses are ~100 nanometres in diameter.[1] | |
Specialty | Infectious disease, pulmonology |
Unlike most strains of influenza, H1N1 does not disproportionately infect adults older than 60 years; this was an unusual and characteristic feature of the H1N1 pandemic.[5] Even in the case of previously very healthy people, a small percentage will develop pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This manifests itself as increased breathing difficulty and typically occurs three to six days after initial onset of flu symptoms.[6][7] The pneumonia caused by flu can be either direct viral pneumonia or a secondary bacterial pneumonia. In fact, a November 2009 New England Journal of Medicine article recommended that flu patients whose chest X-ray indicates pneumonia receive both antivirals and antibiotics.[8] In particular, it is a warning sign if a child (and presumably an adult) seems to be getting better and then relapses with high fever, as this relapse may be bacterial pneumonia.[9]