When animals get similar or identical diseases then humans and when these diseases then can be transferred between them that should tell us something about how closely related we really are. Do we really want to eat meat that is humans like? It is cannibalism! Who knows what other diseases we have been getting because of this nasty habit of eating meat! There is science that links Alzheimer a brain deterioration disease to Mad Cow disease? Is it really worth it?
US 'very concerned' about swine flu outbreak
US medical authorities expressed strong concern Friday about an unprecedented multi-strain swine flu outbreak that has killed at least 60 people in Mexico and infected seven people in the United States.
"It's very obvious that we are very concerned. We've stood up emergency operation centers," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spokesman Dave Daigle told AFP.
One major source of concern was that the virus included strains from different types of flu.
"This is the first time that we've seen an avian strain, two swine strains and a human strain," said Daigle, adding that the virus had influenza strains from European and Asian swine, but not from North American swine.
In 11 of 12 reported human cases of swine influenza (H1N1) virus infection in the United States from December 2005 to February 2009, the CDC has documented direct or indirect contact with swine.
But the seven known cases of the previously undetected strain in the United States -- five from California and two from Texas -- did not have contact with pigs. The seven people infected have all recovered from the flu.
"We have determined that this virus is contagious and is spreading from human to human," the CDC said on its website. "However, at this time, we have not determined how easily the virus spreads between people."
Local and state health officials were interviewing not just the people who were infected but the people with whom they had contact, Daigle noted.
Officials were looking for the source of the infection, Daigle
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