August 3, 2012 — The number of individuals sickened by a novel swine influenza virus since July 2011 has surged to 29, with 12 new cases reported this week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today.
Direct or indirect contact with pigs explains how most of the 29 individuals, predominantly children, caught the virus. However, the CDC has identified a few cases of human-to-human transmission, and the agency is closely monitoring the virus to see whether it mutates into a version more easily spread among humans. A study published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in February reported that the virus has "pandemic potential" among humans.
Just in case, the agency has developed a pilot vaccine against the novel virus that is scheduled for clinical trials later this year, CDC epidemiologist Joseph Bresee, MD, said in a press briefing today.
Of the 12 swine influenza cases from this week, 10 involved patients who had been exposed to pigs at a county fair in Butler County, Ohio, 1 involved a patient had been exposed to swine at a county fair in Indiana, and 1 involved a farmer in Hawaii who worked with pigs. None of the 12 patients were hospitalized.
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