Posted on August 21, 2009 by: WayCoolDogs

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Today the swine flu has gone public within the global epidemic community by transferring to birds.  We had announced earlier (Swine Flu Beginning to Mutate in Germany) that WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan feared the swine flu would mix with the bird flu virus for a more deadly form of the disease – even though they are stating that infected turkeys in Chile are suffering only mild effects at this time.

No signs of a dangerous mutation have developed in the two turkey farms in Chile. The swine flu is a mixture of three types of viruses — bird, pig and human — which is extremely contagious but is only as deadly as the common season flu. According to Yahoo! News, “However, virus experts fear a more dangerous and easily transmitted strain could emerge if it combines again with avian flu, which is far more deadly but tougher to pass along.”

Chile is now sending samples from the birds outside their country for more of a genetic sequencing of confirmation that would match the pandemic global strain of swine flu. So far, Chile has reported 12,000 people infected with the swine flu with 128 deaths.

Today, the World Health Organization reports that swine flu cases will double every three to four days for several coming months until the peak transmission is reached. “At a certain point, there will seem to be an explosion in case numbers,” WHO’s Western Pacific director, Shin Young-soo, told a symposium of health officials and experts in Beijing. “It is certain there will be more cases and more deaths.” WHO estimates that as many as 2 billion people could become infected with swine flu over the next two years, approximately 1/3 of the world’s population.

The greatest threat of swine flu is feared within developing countries with their under equipped and underfunded health systems, even though the international attention is focusing on southern hemisphere countries—such as Australia—where the flu season has already begun. Ordinary flu typically will kill about 250,000 to 500,000 individuals every year.

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