How did the whole swine flu thing start?

Answer 1

The Swine Flu H1N1 strain actually started in pigs, hence the name "swine flu". The first Swine flu viruses were isolated in 1930 in the United States in pigs.

It mutated to be able to cross species just like the Influenza type A, H5N1 Avian (bird) flu, but that one came from birds. Flu viruses mutate very quickly, and when they do, they can sometimes form a type of virus that can be transferred from one species to another when there is regular contact between the species in crowded conditions. It is not that common but because pigs are physiologica lly very similar to humans it makes it easier for the virus to use them in the "reassortant" (the process that combines different species' genetic material within a virus). This is what happened with the swine flu - it jumped from pigs to humans after a mutation of the virus. There have been several outbreaks of swine flu of this type among humans over the years, the most well known occurred in 1976, but it was not a widespread occurrence in most of those outbreaks.

The 2009 Swine Flu (Novel H1N1 Influenza type A) evolved similarly when the H1N1 virus strain that pigs get combined genetic material from pigs who had previously been infected by swine flu and bird flu with genetic material from a human flu virus that also ended up in the same pig (this process is called "triple reassortant"). When a person (probably a worker in a pig farm) came into close contact with the pigs who had spread that mutation of the swine-bird-human virus among the herd, the virus was picked up and the farm worker became ill from the virus. That strain of virus then became able to be passed from human to human starting with the farm worker and the epidemic began.

Answer 2

It started to spread in Mexico, and many people started to die. It spread up to Texas and New York, (because a high school took a trip there over spring break) and it turned into a pandemic, and also spread throughout more states.

Answer 3

Viruses cause flu. Viruses are little pieces of DNA or RNA surrounded by a shell. These viruses infect a cell. Once they get inside a cell, the viruses lose their shells and the pieces of DNA or RNA start making new copies of the DNA or RNA and put them into new shells. The cell then falls apart and releases all the new viruses. Sometimes a bird, animal, or human catches two or more types of flu at once. Then pieces of DNA or RNA from two different types of flu can get together in one shell. It makes a new type of flu. That type of flu starts infecting animals or people. The pig didn't start the swine flu. Two viruses infected a pig at the same time and created the virus responsible for swine flu.

See the related question below for more details of how the virus went from pigs to people.

Answer 4

My theory is that one day some farmer's pigs in Mexico ate the wrong things, they eventually got sick and died. The Farmer and his family decided to eat the pig. They too got sick and passed the sickness on. The family of farmers died.

There are many theories of how it all started, but as hearing this one from allot of people and as an expert myself, I think this theory is true.

Answer 5

It got started in Mexico when a pig got sick and the sickness spreaded to the humans.