JK SCIENCE Vol. 11 No. 4, Oct-December 2009 www.jkscience.org 163 From the PG Department of Pharmacology, Govt Medical College, Srinagar, (J&K)-India Correspondence to : Dr Zaffar Abbas, Head, PG Department of Pharmacology, Govt.Medical College, Srinagar (J&K)- India. History of Swine Flu Shakil.A.Mir,V.R.Tandon, Z.Abbas, Z.Singh, S.Farhat, M.A.Pukhta, Z. Ashai, S.Parveen, N.Jan, Shakil-u-Rehman Swine flu, also called Hog or Pig Flu, is an infection caused by any one of the several types of Swine influenza virus (SIV) which is common throughout pig population worldwide. The term "influenza" derived from Italian word" influence" was coined in 1357 AD as the disease was thought to be caused by influence of stars. Influenza pandemics are believed to have occurred at unpredictable intervals for many centuries. Outbreaks of swine flu are common and cause significant economical losses. Influenza, the flu, is believed to have been around for a few thousand years. Hippocrates, who is considered to be the father of modern medicine, has described the symptoms of the flu in 412 B.C at Perinthus in North Greece (1). In 855 Ebn al atir mentions a virulent epidemic resembling flu that started in Central Asia and spread across Persia (2). In 1485 an illness with flu like symptoms killed thousands of people in Britian, including the mayor (3). In 1510 a flu pandemic originated in Africa and spread across Europe (4). In 1580 a pandemic originated in the North Africa during summer, spread to Sicily, and then up through Italy, through Europe and to North America. It had a high mortality rate and killed 9000 people in Rome alone. In some Spanish cities nearly everyone perished (5). In 1688, an outbreak, described as being like the plague because of the death toll, swept through England, Ireland and Virginia (6). In 1693-1699 an influenza outbreak occurred in Europe and America and Massachusetts.The sickness extended to almost all families. Few or none escaped, and many died especially in Boston (7). In 1729 a pandemic originated in Russia, and re-emerged in Sweden in September and in Vienna in October. In November it spread across Europe, and reached America in 1732. Deaths were most numerous amongst the elderly and pregnant women (8). In 1781- 82 an influenza pandemic afflicted two-thirds of the people of Rome and three-quarters of the population of Britain. Influenza also spread widely in North America, the West Indies and Spanish America (9). In 1789 influenza epidemic hit England, New York and Nova Scotia. Most deaths appeared to have been from secondary pneumonia (10). In 1830-33 a pandemic spread out from China. The infection rate was high (20- 25%), but mortality was low (10). In 1847-1848 an epidemic swept through the Mediterranean to southern France and thence elsewhere in Western Europe (11). The 1889 a pandemic began in May in Bokara, Central Asia and traveled west to Russia and Western Europe after a pause of several months. There were four waves to the 1889 pandemic, three of which affected Britain. The first was in January 1890.Subsequent waves occurred in May 1891 and January 1892 and were associated with much greater morbidity (12).In1900: a major epidemic was reported in North America, England and Wales (13). In 1918-19 the worst pandemic, so called "Spanish flu" affected nearly one third of the world's population and caused 50 million plus deaths worldwide. It is thought to have originated in the United States in Feb 1918. Researches indicate that the descendants of 1918 virus still persist enzotically in pigs and are also transmitted continuously to humans causing annual epidemics (14-15). In 1957-58 avian influenza originated in China, with deaths worldwide estimated at between one and four million. In 1968, Hong Kong flu caused some million deaths worldwide, particularly among the elderly (16). In 1976,a variant of H1N1,known as A/New Jersey/ 1976 caused death of a army recruit at Fort Dix New Jersey USA. But it did not spread beyond Fort Dix (17). In 1977 a pandemic."Russian Flu" spread across Siberia and European part of Russia. In 1988, swine flu killed a 32 year old, otherwise healthy pregnant woman, Barbara Ann Wieners in Wisconsin, USA after she visited a pig exhibition (18). In 1997 Avian Flu outbreak originated from the New Territories Region in northern Hong Kong. In this area, chickens had been dying and routine testing of poultry had verified the presence of the Avian Flu virus - subtype SWINE FLU EMERGING THREAT VIEW POINT