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2009 swine flu pandemic
The 2009 swine flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1/swine flu/influenza virus and declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) from June 2009 to August 2010, was the third recent flu pandemic involving the H1N1 virus (the first being the 1918–1920 Spanish flu pandemic and the second being the 1977 Russian flu). The first identified human case was in La Gloria, Mexico, a rural town in Veracruz. The virus appeared to be a new strain of H1N1 that resulted from a previous triple reassortment of bird, swine, and human flu viruses which further combined with a Eurasian pig flu virus, leading to the term "swine flu".
Unlike most strains of influenza, the pandemic H1N1/09 virus did not disproportionately infect adults older than 60 years; this was an unusual and characteristic feature of the H1N1 pandemic. Even in the case of previously healthy people, a small percentage 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. The pneumonia caused by flu can be either direct viral pneumonia or a secondary bacterial pneumonia. A November 2009 New England Journal of Medicine article recommended that flu patients whose chest X-ray indicates pneumonia receive both antivirals and antibiotics. In particular, it is a warning sign if a child seems to be getting better and then relapses with high fever, as this relapse may be bacterial pneumonia.
Some studies estimated that the real number of cases including asymptomatic and mild cases could be 700 million to 1.4 billion people—or 11% to 21% of the global population of 6.8 billion at the time. The lower value of 700 million is more than the 500 million people estimated to have been infected by the Spanish flu pandemic. However, the Spanish flu infected approximately a third of the world population at the time, a much higher proportion.
The number of lab-confirmed deaths reported to the WHO is 18,449 and is widely considered a gross underestimate. The WHO collaborated with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) and Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL) to produce two independent estimates of the influenza deaths that occurred during the global pandemic using two distinct methodologies. The 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic is estimated to have actually caused about 284,000 (range from 150,000 to 575,000) excess deaths by the WHO-USCDC study and 148,000–249,000 excess respiratory deaths by the WHO-NIVEL study. A study done in September 2010 showed that the risk of serious illness resulting from the 2009 H1N1 flu was no higher than that of the yearly seasonal flu. For comparison, the WHO estimates that 250,000 to 500,000 people die of seasonal flu annually. However, the H1N1 influenza epidemic in 2009 resulted in a large increase in the number of new cases of narcolepsy.
The World Health Organization uses the term "(H1N1) 2009 pandemic" when referring to the event, and officially adopted the name "A(H1N1)pdm09" for the virus in 2010, after the conclusion of the pandemic.
Controversy arose early on regarding the wide assortment of terms used by journalists, academics, and officials. Labels like "H1N1 flu", "Swine flu", "Mexican flu", and variations thereof were typical. Criticism centered on how these names may confuse or mislead the public. It was argued that the names were overly technical (e.g. "H1N1"), incorrectly implying that the disease is caused by contact with pigs or pig products, or provoking stigmatization against certain communities (e.g. "Mexican"). Some academics of the time asserted there is nothing wrong with such names, while research published years later (in 2013) concluded that Mexican Americans and Latino Americans had indeed been stigmatized due to the frequent use of term "Mexican flu" in the news media.
Official entities adopted terms with varying consistency over the course of the pandemic. The CDC used names like "novel influenza A (H1N1)" or "2009 H1N1 flu". The Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment used the term "Pig Flu" early on. Officials in Taiwan suggested use of the names "H1N1 flu" or "new flu". The World Organisation for Animal Health, an IGO based in Europe, proposed the name "North American influenza". The European Commission adopted the term "novel flu virus". Officials in Israel and South Korea briefly considered adoption of the name "Mexican virus" due to concern about the use of the word "swine". In Israel, objections stemmed from sensitivity to religious restrictions on eating pork in the Jewish and Muslim populations, in South Korea, concerns were influenced by the importance of pork and domestic pigs.
As terminology changed to deal with these and other such issues, further criticism was made that the situation was unnecessarily confusing. For example, the news department at the journal Science produced an article with the humorous title "Swine Flu Names Evolving Faster Than Swine Flu Itself".
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2009 swine flu pandemic
The 2009 swine flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1/swine flu/influenza virus and declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) from June 2009 to August 2010, was the third recent flu pandemic involving the H1N1 virus (the first being the 1918–1920 Spanish flu pandemic and the second being the 1977 Russian flu). The first identified human case was in La Gloria, Mexico, a rural town in Veracruz. The virus appeared to be a new strain of H1N1 that resulted from a previous triple reassortment of bird, swine, and human flu viruses which further combined with a Eurasian pig flu virus, leading to the term "swine flu".
Unlike most strains of influenza, the pandemic H1N1/09 virus did not disproportionately infect adults older than 60 years; this was an unusual and characteristic feature of the H1N1 pandemic. Even in the case of previously healthy people, a small percentage 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. The pneumonia caused by flu can be either direct viral pneumonia or a secondary bacterial pneumonia. A November 2009 New England Journal of Medicine article recommended that flu patients whose chest X-ray indicates pneumonia receive both antivirals and antibiotics. In particular, it is a warning sign if a child seems to be getting better and then relapses with high fever, as this relapse may be bacterial pneumonia.
Some studies estimated that the real number of cases including asymptomatic and mild cases could be 700 million to 1.4 billion people—or 11% to 21% of the global population of 6.8 billion at the time. The lower value of 700 million is more than the 500 million people estimated to have been infected by the Spanish flu pandemic. However, the Spanish flu infected approximately a third of the world population at the time, a much higher proportion.
The number of lab-confirmed deaths reported to the WHO is 18,449 and is widely considered a gross underestimate. The WHO collaborated with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) and Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL) to produce two independent estimates of the influenza deaths that occurred during the global pandemic using two distinct methodologies. The 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic is estimated to have actually caused about 284,000 (range from 150,000 to 575,000) excess deaths by the WHO-USCDC study and 148,000–249,000 excess respiratory deaths by the WHO-NIVEL study. A study done in September 2010 showed that the risk of serious illness resulting from the 2009 H1N1 flu was no higher than that of the yearly seasonal flu. For comparison, the WHO estimates that 250,000 to 500,000 people die of seasonal flu annually. However, the H1N1 influenza epidemic in 2009 resulted in a large increase in the number of new cases of narcolepsy.
The World Health Organization uses the term "(H1N1) 2009 pandemic" when referring to the event, and officially adopted the name "A(H1N1)pdm09" for the virus in 2010, after the conclusion of the pandemic.
Controversy arose early on regarding the wide assortment of terms used by journalists, academics, and officials. Labels like "H1N1 flu", "Swine flu", "Mexican flu", and variations thereof were typical. Criticism centered on how these names may confuse or mislead the public. It was argued that the names were overly technical (e.g. "H1N1"), incorrectly implying that the disease is caused by contact with pigs or pig products, or provoking stigmatization against certain communities (e.g. "Mexican"). Some academics of the time asserted there is nothing wrong with such names, while research published years later (in 2013) concluded that Mexican Americans and Latino Americans had indeed been stigmatized due to the frequent use of term "Mexican flu" in the news media.
Official entities adopted terms with varying consistency over the course of the pandemic. The CDC used names like "novel influenza A (H1N1)" or "2009 H1N1 flu". The Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment used the term "Pig Flu" early on. Officials in Taiwan suggested use of the names "H1N1 flu" or "new flu". The World Organisation for Animal Health, an IGO based in Europe, proposed the name "North American influenza". The European Commission adopted the term "novel flu virus". Officials in Israel and South Korea briefly considered adoption of the name "Mexican virus" due to concern about the use of the word "swine". In Israel, objections stemmed from sensitivity to religious restrictions on eating pork in the Jewish and Muslim populations, in South Korea, concerns were influenced by the importance of pork and domestic pigs.
As terminology changed to deal with these and other such issues, further criticism was made that the situation was unnecessarily confusing. For example, the news department at the journal Science produced an article with the humorous title "Swine Flu Names Evolving Faster Than Swine Flu Itself".