What’s the difference between the regular flu that many people get every year, and the H1N1 or swine flu?
Is the immunization that you get for all of these the same or do you need a separate one for each different kind of flu?
I don’t think I can improve on the previous answer as concerns the descriptive differences between H1N1 (Swine Flu) and seasonal influenza. Agree, separate vaccinations are needed for protection against both forms of flu.
There are some other differences you should be aware of. H1N1 has circulated at high levels during the summer months, which is unusual for influenza, and the majority of serious illness, complications and deaths has occurred in persons under the age of 65.
H1N1 is the predominant flu in circulation across much of the world. H1N1 has practically crowded out seasonal influenza. Hence, it may be more important to get the H1N1 vaccination first. For some additional background, you might also use:
World Notes: World Health Organization cautions not to underestimate H1N1 virus
http://influenzamonitor.com/2009/11/world-notes-world-health-organization-cautions-not-to-underestimate-h1n1-virus/
The US Centers for Disease Control maintains current virus surveillance data, and other public health information updates on H1N1. You might start here:
2009 H1N1 Flu ("Swine Flu") and You
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm
Google "H1N1 Influenza Internet Resource Guide" for a quick list of resources on H1N1.
Posted in flu
January 17th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Yep, different shots are needed.
You should really at the very least read up Wikipedia instead of coming here.
For the current outbreak go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic_H1N1/09_virus
For the H1N1 type go here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H1N1
A couple of quotes from Wiki-
"Influenza A (H1N1) virus is a subtype of influenza A virus and the most common cause of influenza (flu) in humans. Some strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans and cause a small fraction of all influenza-like illness and a small fraction of all seasonal influenza. H1N1 strains caused a few percent all human flu infections in 2004–2005[1]. Other strains of H1N1 are endemic in pigs (swine influenza) and in birds (avian influenza).
In June 2009, World Health Organization declared that flu due to a new strain of swine-origin H1N1 was responsible for the 2009 flu pandemic. This strain is often called swine flu by the public media."
and
"Swine Influenza
Swine influenza (also called swine flu, hog flu, or pig flu) is an infection by any one of several types of swine influenza virus. Swine influenza virus (SIV) is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs. As of 2009, the known SIV strains include influenza C and the subtypes of influenza A known as H1N1, H1N2, H3N1, H3N2, and H2N3."
Think on the bright side, it’s not the Spanish Flu, which you can read about on the second link, devastating the world after WW1.
References :
January 17th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
I don’t think I can improve on the previous answer as concerns the descriptive differences between H1N1 (Swine Flu) and seasonal influenza. Agree, separate vaccinations are needed for protection against both forms of flu.
There are some other differences you should be aware of. H1N1 has circulated at high levels during the summer months, which is unusual for influenza, and the majority of serious illness, complications and deaths has occurred in persons under the age of 65.
H1N1 is the predominant flu in circulation across much of the world. H1N1 has practically crowded out seasonal influenza. Hence, it may be more important to get the H1N1 vaccination first. For some additional background, you might also use:
World Notes: World Health Organization cautions not to underestimate H1N1 virus
http://influenzamonitor.com/2009/11/world-notes-world-health-organization-cautions-not-to-underestimate-h1n1-virus/
The US Centers for Disease Control maintains current virus surveillance data, and other public health information updates on H1N1. You might start here:
2009 H1N1 Flu ("Swine Flu") and You
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm
Google "H1N1 Influenza Internet Resource Guide" for a quick list of resources on H1N1.
References :
http://influenzamonitor.com/2009/11/world-notes-world-health-organization-cautions-not-to-underestimate-h1n1-virus/
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/qa.htm
http://flu-monitor.com/h1n1-influenza-internet-resource-guide/
January 17th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
For anything that takes a vaccine, it’s different for different things. You wouldn’t take a vaccine against say, polio if you wanted one against the measles. All vaccines we get as children. Taking this as an example you don’t take the seasonal flu vaccine against the h1n1 flu either. So you need the h1n1 vaccine against the h1n1 flu and the seasonal flu vaccine against the seasonal flu. Each one is also good for one year only, and needs to be renewed next year. Without going into allot of book or pamphlet reading this simplifies the answer for you. Good luck and God Bless
References :
nursing experience
January 17th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
"What’s the difference between the regular flu that many people get every year, and the H1N1 or swine flu?" — Swine flu is for pigs and is caused by SIV (swine influenza virus). What you call "regular flu" is seasonal flu and there are 3 of them. Seasonal H3N2, seasonal H1N1 and type B are the seasonal flus. Swine flu is NOT the same thing as novel H1N1. This is not really plain old H1N1 because there are two H1N1 flu viruses. So here are more differences — SIV affects swine. That leaves seasonal flus and novel H1N1 flu which affect humans. The difference between the seasonal H1N1, H3N2 and type B is obvious. The HN flus are type A flus and type B is type B. The difference between the HN flus is in the number of proteins on the viral capsule. H1N1 flus, both seasonal & novel, have 1 hemagglutinin protein (HA) and 1 neurominidase (NA) protein. Seasonal H3N2 has three HAs and 2 NAs. It’s right in the names — H1N1 and H3N2. The difference between seasonal H1N1 and novel H1N1 is genetic and in the structural shape of the capsule. Also, while seasonal H1N1 flu causes nausea, vomiting & diarrhea primarily in young children, novel H1N1 flu tends to cause these symptoms in all ages. All influenza viruses cause respiratory infections so they all have that in common and novel H1N1 is primarily a respiratory infection with the added GI component.
"Is the immunization that you get for all of these the same or do you need a separate one for each different kind of flu?" — The vaccination is not the same for all. The seasonal flu vaccination immunizes against the 3 seasonal flus. I’ve already listed these above. The novel H1N1 flu vaccination protects only against novel H1N1 flu, as the name obviously implies.
References :
I’m a nurse.