GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO), bowing to pressure from meat industry producers and concerned governments, said on Thursday it would refer to a deadly new virus strain as influenza A (H1N1), not swine flu.
"From today, WHO will refer to the new influenza virus as 'influenza A (H1N1)'," it said on its www.who.int/en/ website.
The new strain has infected 257 people. The WHO has confirmed eight deaths although many more people are suspected to have died from the virus.
It derives from a swine influenza virus but the new strain has been found only in people. While it contains mostly swine flu genetic sequences, it also contains small amounts of human and bird flu virus genetic material.
No pigs have been confirmed to be sick with it.
WHO has consistently said the disease cannot be caught from eating pork if it is prepared properly.
"There is also no risk of infection from this virus from consumption of well-cooked pork and pork products," it said on its website on Thursday.
The name of the flu led several countries to ban imports of pork from Mexico and the United States, where the outbreak first appeared, and authorities in Egypt have ordered a cull of pigs.
U.S. and European food industries and governments had been calling for a change in name to remove the link in people's minds between the disease and pigs.
The "influenza A (H1N1)" designation refers to a family of flu strains, including one of the current seasonal strains and the strain that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed an estimated 40 million people or more.
(For WHO information on swine flu, go to: here )
Posted by Wintermute at April 30, 2009 08:07 PMAhem.... This is America; you are asking the people to be critical thinkers.
We want simple: Cheap crap to buy, Plenty of Cable Sports and other drivel, cheap food and lots and lots of soda, Budweiser and predigested "news". We are far too busy being the greatest nation in the world and maintaining our superior standard of living to deal with such egghead nonsense.
We cannot be bothered with the subject of that article, it's too dense, requires too much brain power. Pig = Flu = bad. That's all we need to know. If pork wasn't good enough for Jesus well it ain't good enough for me....
Jesus had an encounter with pigs, see Matthew 7:6, 8:30
Posted by: Wintermute at May 1, 2009 07:55 PMYes indeed. He treated them in accordance with the style of the times.
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