Seasonal Influenza Can Protect Against Swine Flu
People who repeatedly recover from ordinary seasonal flu or a few times vaccinated, perhaps, to some extent are protected from the swine flu A virus H1N1, researchers from the United States reported.
They found evidence that the human immune system can partially recognize A virus H1N1 virus, which is something still similar to seasonal influenza viruses.
“Swine influenza is a bit like an ordinary flu, which may suggest that humans already have a partial immunity against it. Perhaps this can make the disease less severe among the general population than previously estimated,” – said Alessandro Sette, Ph.D. Head and Member Center for Infectious Disease in California.
The study also may help explain why many older people are not so hard to carry the disease, said Ellison Dekhat Augustine from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “We adults may be a partial immunity against A virus H1N1,” – she said.
Swine flu has swept through about 22 million Americans from April to October, killing an estimated 3,900 people, including 540 children.
“We’ve been tracking influenza for decades,” says Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “What we are seeing in 2009 is unprecedented.”