Surely, you all remember first hearing this spreading epidemic. This summer, some Mexican pigs contracted and transmitted a strain of virus called the swine flu. Although most people only knew of it when it started spreading throughout the country, it was first discovered on 1930. Obviously in a couple of pigs, but did you know that those were in fact American pigs?"American pigs?" you ask?And to you I say, "Yes, American pigs got the disease first"."But Drea, how could that be?"
Well, the first time it broke out it was in America. The difference is that people did manage to isolate it in the pigs. In other words, you only had to be worried if you were a pig.Until 1970 something or another, when it did break out in humans. It was Fort Dix, New Jersey and became the most infamous outbreak in humans. Soldiers contracted what seemed to be the flu and started dying. But- it stayed in the group of soldiers and didn't stray anywhere else. Then it disappeared. Like magic.Then, whoa and behold, a pregnant woman oddly died of pneumonia in just eight days. Even though she was hospitalized. Oddly enough, she was perfectly healthy. Where did she go wrong? She visited a county fair swine exhibition.More currently, the outbreak in Mexico. It is thought to have started with a young boy who lives in La Gloria, ironic isn't it? There are were lots of hog barns there but when the government tested them, there was no evidence there. It is now believed that it started in a different farm in Texas."It actually started in America?" you say?And to you I say, "Well, yes. It actually did."More importantly to you, are the statistics of the swine flu in the U.S. It arrived in California and Texas first, and it did not take long for it to be called a Pandemic. The US Centers for Disease and Prevention reported 170 deaths in US territory and 33.902 confirmed or probable cases. Bang. World wide statistics were had 70,893 CONFIRMED cases, not confirmed or probable cases, CONFIRMED and 311 deaths."So what! I'm not around pigs and we live in IOWA. Nothing ever happens in Iowa. We're in the clear!" you may say.And to those people I say, "WRONG! That's just a myth and besides, there are 2 suspected cases in Iowa".
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