What is Swine Influenza?

Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a highly contagious respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza. The swine influenza virus (SIV) is very common in pigs and can cause outbreaks of influenza during the cool seasons usually in fall and winter. However, SIV is not common in humans. On the other hand, if people work in a place where they need to have a close contact with swine, they are at a high risk to get infected if the virus carries a strain which can infect human. Furthermore, the SIV can mutate into a different form which can transmit from human to human. The outbreak of swine flu in 2009 was an exact situation which was the mutation of the swine flu virus and the result could be multiple human infections. Also, evidence indicated that swine flu virus could be transmitted from the patients to health care workers who had close contact with them.