There have been deadly strains of the H1N1 virus in the past that are related to this new Mexican Flu strain. This type A virus has caused deaths before.
In 2005 in the state of Wisconsin a 17 year old man tested positive for the swine flu virus. It was recorded that three day before he had assisted his brother in law with the butchering of several pigs
In 1988 another outbreak was in the state of Wisconsin. This was a person that visited a swine exhibit at a county fair that contracted it from the live stock. Human to human transfer of the disease was confirmed by the presence of antibodies to the virus that were detected in a hospital worker that was treating the infected patient. The patient, a 32 year old woman did die. There was no large outbreak of the disease and containment was simple but it did happen.
In 1976 there was an outbreak at the army base in New Jersey. There were only 4 confirmed cases and one death. The origin of the virus is still unknown but all of the victims were previously health young Americans.
In 1957 there was an outbreak that caused up to 2 million fatalities, but there is little known about this event other than it was of the swine flu strain.
The deadliest to date is still the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak that infected a quarter of the world’s population and killed close to 50 million people worldwide.
What most people need to realize is that the normal yearly flu virus kills up to 35,000 people a year. This yearly death toll is larger than all but two of the previous swine flu outbreaks. The major concern of the Mexican flu virus is the target group of young adults. How far it will spread and the death toll are still to be determined.
We use resources from the time periods discussed by using old newspaper articles that you may follow online also at www.old-newspaer-articles.com. There is a nominal annual subscription rate to gain access to these historical newspapers but it is a pittance in comparison to all of the news of the day that you can obtain from modern times way back to the 1700’s. This is just about the best resource available to read about the early strains of the flu virus of the 1900′s.
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