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Two US kids develop flu from pigs

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Here is more info on the Indiana boy. He hadn't had contact with pigs but his

caregiver did.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011109030324

Extracted from the article linked above:

This particular virus has only been seen eight times in the past five years --

the Indiana case was the ninth and the Pennsylvania case the 10th, according to

the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Friday.

In Indiana, the virus was picked up as part of routine flu surveillance, said

s, respiratory epidemiologist for the Indiana State Department of

Health.

A boy younger than 5, who had chronic health problems, went to the hospital with

flu symptoms on July 23. s declined to say where the case occurred.

When the boy's flu test came back positive, the state's virology lab requested

the specimen, as it's unusual to see the disease at this time of year, s

said. The lab found the flu strain to be nonhuman and sent it to the CDC.

The boy had had no contact with pigs, but a caretaker did in the weeks before he

fell ill. She was asymptomatic, s said. No other family members appear

ill.

In the Pennsylvania case, a girl, also younger than 5, had contact with pigs at

an agricultural fair last month. She, too, has recovered, and health officials

are investigating reports of illness in other people who went to the fair. No

additional cases have been confirmed so far.

The viruses in the two children were similar but not identical, and s

said there was no indication of a connection between the two cases.

Despite the rarity of such cases, there's no reason for alarm, health officials

say.

" It's more of an intriguing, interesting thing, " said. " What it has told

us is that our surveillance systems are working very well. "

Studies showed that the virus includes a gene from the 2009 pandemic strain that

might let it spread more easily than pig viruses normally do.

The new strain is a hybrid of viruses that have infected pigs over the past

decade and a gene from the H1N1 strain that caused the pandemic two years ago.

It is the first combination virus to turn up in people since the pandemic, said

Shaw, a lab chief at the CDC. It's classified as an H3N2 virus.

The gene from the 2009 pandemic is one of the things that makes this new strain

worrisome, said Dr. Treanor, a flu specialist at the University of

Rochester School of Medicine.

" There is some evidence that that gene is particularly important for

transmission from person to person, " he said.

This year's vaccine, which is the same as last year's, likely would not protect

against the new swine strain, Treanor and Finelli said. However, they are

encouraged that so far it does not appear to have spread easily between people,

and that local health officials detected and reported the novel strain so

quickly.

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