Swine have long been suspected as the ideal mixing vessel for the emergence of new influenza strains.
But antibodies against flu viruses you've encountered in the past can't protect you from new influenza subtypes that are very different immunologically from what you had before.
Then, as the new virus replicates it mutates further and, if luck is on its side, some of these mutations allow it to spread from human to human - a new influenza pandemic is born.
Since neither of the two children, a 10-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, had contact with pigs, it "increases the possibility that human-to-human transmission of this new influenza virus has occurred, " according to a CDC report.
Commenting on the licensing of one of the new influenza drugs, Dr John Chisholm, chairman of the BMA's GP Committee, warned that if demand for the drug coincided with a holiday period such as the millennium, it could lead to the NHS being dangerously overstretched.
The contentious paper looks at how the new form of influenza passes between ferrets.
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The reason for the enthusiasm: BioCryst's influenza neuraminidase inhibitor drug candidate, peramivir, received prominent and positive mention in a New York Times article about how some discarded drug candidates may have new possibilities in treating the H5N1 avian influenza that has broken out in Southeast Asia, which many public health officials fear could develop into a global pandemic.
The new virus has genes from North American swine influenza, avian influenza, human influenza and a form of swine influenza normally found in Asia and Europe, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC's Influenza Division.
CNN: Among the swine flu mysteries: Why only deaths in Mexico?
During the peak of the influenza season, the state of New York had to take the extraordinary measure of declaring a state health emergency in order to activate laws allowing pharmacists to vaccinate children against influenza.
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We shouldn't be seeing this much influenza and it's with a new virus and that's the cause fo the concern.
CNN: 2 U.S. swine flu dead had other health problems, officials say
Influenza viruses are constantly changing, with new strains appearing regularly.
Tracking influenza and other illnesses based on social media isn't new.
Mayo Clinic vaccine researcher Gregory Poland counts more than a dozen new diseases that have emerged in the last few decades: HIV, Lyme disease, West Nile virus, avian influenza.
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