Swine flu. swine?

The world faces , once again, the challenge of a pandemic. In the history of mankind are identified several, some of which were quite striking, as the cases of Cholera, Typhoid and Gripe. Currently we are facing what may be the beginning of a new pandemic, known as "Swine Flu".

Apart from the social impacts and, consequently, economic and political that this pandemic may have, It is interesting to note the speed with which information has traveled the world, generating, sometimes, more confusion than clarification of what is happening.

It all started in Mexico, that already has a high number of deaths due to swine flu. This caused major global importers of pork, such as Russia and China have enacted ban on pork meat of all American countries, the north or the south (although the cases of affected humans have been reported only in North and Central America).

Some indicators show already decreased consumption of pork because people are afraid of eating contaminated meat. The great thing is that… It was not detected in any country individual pigs with such swine flu. Like this, a rigor, pigs have no relation to what is happening at the moment, quite the contrary, They are also possible victims of what is happening.

In technical terms, the virus that is causing the current deaths are called "influenza A", H1N1 subtype, which places it as a variant of swine flu. However, analyzing the characteristics of the virus, realizes that he has characteristics of avian viruses, pigs and humans.

Human influenza is caused by viruses "human influenza". Usually this virus is restricted to the human species, but they have been detected cases in which he was able to undergo changes that enabled him to infect other species. The "influenza A" also hits, until now, only humans. The fear is that this species, more lethal, can mutate and adapt to the attack to other species, among which, pigs.

In other words, although the world is alarmed by swine flu and the pig is being blamed for everything, in fact the pig is just another potential victim of a disease that is, essentially, human.

This case is interesting in that it shows the power to impact the media have today, without a real monitoring of what is reported. The scientific community was hit in his analysis in that the focus is on deaths, I do not despair, the uncertainty of a future increasingly bleak. These dimensions of human life seem to draw more attention to the general public than an engaged discussion, that seeks to clarify the ideas that are in focus.

Originally published in Journal Author

www.revistaautor.com