The simple answer to how the continent of Africa was drawn into the outbreak is travel. Americans studying at Cairo University and children on vacation with their parents brought the new H1N1 virus with them. The United States has had increasingly more cases of H1N1 flu than other countries, even though the first infections were seen in Mexico. The question on everyone’s minds is “why?”
The Initial H1N1 Infection
All outbreaks start with a patient zero, the first person to get infected. In the case of the 2009 H1N1 influenza strain, patient zero is thought to be a 5-year-old boy in La Gloria, Mexico, a village in the southeast portion of the country. Villagers began showing signs of illness as early as February 2009, with 60 percent of the residents becoming ill during subsequent months, but only Edgar Hernandez tested positive for H1N1 among the first 35 patients who provided samples. His diagnosis was confirmed in April, but unlike more than 100 of his countrymen, Edgar recovered from the infection.
The Creation of a Novel Flu Strain
Residents of La Gloria blame the infection on pig farms 5 miles upwind of their town. Granjas Carroll de Mexico has 72 farms in the area, and is partially owned by U.S. company Smithfield Foods. However, infectious disease and agriculture experts are not sure exactly how the virus entered the human population, but based on its genetics it is clear that it has combined with other, more common strains in the human population and circulated in the swine population for years (June 11 Nature online). Type A influenzas are well known species hoppers, infecting humans, pigs, and birds with regularity, and posing a threat of mutation and increased virulence if able to cross infect and share genes. The 2009 H1N1 influenza strain is different than the seasonal H1N1 flu strain and contains genes from avian influenza, swine influenza, and human influenza viruses, making it a novel hybrid to which humans have never been previously exposed.
The 2009 Flu Outbreak
In April 2009, reports of an influenza outbreak in Mexico made the news. Cases quickly began appearing in the United States, and then around the world. However, the death rate in Mexico was much higher than anywhere else, with only a handful occurring overall in other countries. Air travelers have been sequestered after exposure to passengers with flu, border patrols have asked travelers if they have been ill, and some countries banned flights from North America despite World Health Organization (WHO) warnings that the virus already had a hold and travel restrictions have not been shown to prevent disease spread to a significant degree. However, they continuously warned that anyone who felt ill should remain home from work or school to curb the spread of the disease, and seek medical intervention for proper reporting of infections.
Confirmed cases of H1N1 infection increased daily, with the list of nations affected creeping to cover six of the seven continents, moving first to Europe and Australia via residents returning from abroad. As of June 4, 2009, 69 countries on six continents (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa) have 21,940 confirmed cases and there have been 125 deaths. The United States has had the most cases, 11,054 infected individuals with 17 deaths, followed by Mexico – 5563 cases with 103 deaths according to the International Society for Infectious Diseases ProMED-mail.
The 2009 Influenza Pandemic
On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization raised the warning level for H1N1 flu to level 6, pandemic. This means that there are sustained community level outbreaks due to human-to-human spread of the virus in multiple regions of the world. Africa was the most recent region to be affected, with the confirmed illness of a 12-year-old American girl vacationing in Cairo, Egypt.
- For information on previous flu pandemics click here.
- For information on how influenza strains are designated click here.
 |
