Where Did Swine Flu Come From?
27 April 2009, 2:30 PM. By Camilla Rowan
The whole world is in a panic over the quickly-spreading episodes of swine flu cropping up all over the globe so, naturally, we need someone to blame. Mexico says it came from the U.S. but America says it’s those darn Mexicans. Who’s right?
No one knows for sure, but the truth might actually lie somewhere in the middle. Mexican newspapers are reporting that a U.S. owned hog farm in Veracruz is where the illness was first incubated and spread to humans.
Mexican paper La Jornada claims that the virus can be traced to Granjas Carroll, a hog farm in Veracruz owned by U.S. pork giant, Smithfield Foods. Smithfield Foods has actually been sued multiple times in the U.S. for improperly managing their feces disposal and in the case of Granjas Carroll, locals of the farm town complain about the “lagoon of feces” that the farm has created–they say that the smell is intolerable and that it incubates giant swarms of flies. In fact, the biting flies may be to blame for spreading the virus, as they could provide a conduit between pig and human bloodstreams.
The generic virus itself is not new–swine flu caused a brief panic in 1976 when it appeared in a U.S. army base and sickened many of the soldiers stationed there. Ironically the biggest fallout from that incident of swine flu came from the vaccine that President Gerald Ford urged citizens to get: only one person died from the actual flu while twenty-five died and five-hundred took sick from the vaccine. To further complicate our understanding of where this virus came from, researchers are now saying that “swine” flu isn’t even the correct description of what this current one is, since this virus is made up from a mix of porcine, avian and human flu strains. Swine flu, in it’s purely “piggy” form, is actually found in pigs worldwide, literally in every country. The World Animal Health organization is recommending the virus be renamed to “North-American influenza” to reflect its presumed origins. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll stick to calling it swine flu for now.
For this particular incarnation of swine flu to transfer to humans would have taken a fairly complicated series of events. A pig with swine flu would have had to come into contact with a human with “human” flu and then the two viruses would have had to hybridize in the pig. Eventually a new strain of flu would be created that could be caught by humans, and would perhaps be carried back to humans via flies.
Tracking the origins of this flu has become a political as well as a medical search. Speculations are flying around with the American press unanimously assuming this is Mexico’s fault while the Mexican press is suggesting that it started at Granjas Carroll. Meanwhile Google maps is tracking purpoted cases of the virus worldwide, with the current tally standing like this:
Google maps appear to be getting their data from the U.S. government agency “Centers for Disease Control,” (CDC) so it’s at least as accurate as anything the CDC knows, but possibly biased.
Swine flu - why is a mild pig disease dangerous to humans? [Telegraph]
Granjas Carroll provocó la epidemia de males respiratorios en Perote, según agente municipal [La Jornada]
World animal health body says swine flu wrong name [Reuters]
Related:
Exclusive: Mexican Pig Farm Smithfield Foods, Inc, Suspected Of Starting H1N1 Virus, Gets Death Threats
Japanese Company Sells Swine Flu-Resistant Suit. Ideal For Dates With Eddie Cibrian.
Survey Says Latino Parents Most Likely To Get Their Kids Vaccinated For Swine Flu
President Of Colombia Alvaro Uribe Has Swine Flu
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I didn’t really catch it but i thought i heard they tryin to blame china or someshit like that.. my dad keeps on changing the channel on tv. hes tried of the swine flu news and is looking for earthquake news. funny old man.
“I wish there were pig-men. You get a few of those pig-men walking around, suddenly I’m looking a lot better. That way if someone wanted to fix me up they could say, ‘Hey, at least he’s no pig-man.’” –George Costanza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG81Bvyzi6w
this is quite a scare as the national population would go into panic now that this is comfirmed.how could this be happening in this time when the recession is present, how is it when all the children go back the school a group of people come back from the disease infested city bringing and spreading it to the unknown. A thing that is quiet also frightning is how their are atleast seven people who have left the plane with the possible disease infection whoever they interact with. underthese circumstances i am pleased to hear the governent is taking strong actions against this ‘plauge’ however who knows what the government can do but just wait for the people who think they are ‘infected’ and not take notice of the quiet people who think that they are not sick and its just an average ‘flu’ in my defence i dont see how we are going to battle this.In my conclusion i find that this disease can be controlled however their is a very high risk that many people will die from this unfortunant coming.
people say swine flu originated in asia, europe, and mexico. Mexico blamed Guatemala that it was there fault, but how did it get to New York exactly where did this flu come from? the only way to make sure it doesnt spread is to maintain clean from germs.
how did the swine flu go from mexico to new york?? Mexico is down by Texas and New york is way up there. so why does New york have more cases that Texas ?
i reckon this is scary..
mexican people started it!
i am never eating any meat that comes from a pig again..
did u know ?
103 people from australia has the swine flue..
and theres 30000 people in the world who have it
& 960 people have died from it in 89 countries!
SHCOKING
keep clean guys
i think you are all fags who r waisting my time
The americans are the new russians… they probably engineered it in a lab and intend to eliminate vulnerable people that are immune compromised eg 3rd world people and poor people and people with aids. Like Hitler. If you live in LA or Beverly Hills you have to be blonde with big boobs and blue eyes… hitler!!!
if you have half of the stuff do you still have the swine flu
The American engineered it in a Lab to genocided children and unborn babies, they are following with their fascismo agenda, they are like the ex-russian or Hitler.
YALL jUSt hAtiN 0N MEXiCANS. jUSt CAUSE WE StARtEd S0MthiNq thAt ENdEd; ANd N0W iTs bACk, d0Nt MEAN Y0U qUYS q0ttA bLAME iT 0N US.
The true answer to everyones question of where it all began is, south carolina. This is where the swine flu originated from, and so our government tried to pin it on another country.
SOUTH CAROLINA!!!