It's a virus known by many names. First came the catchy and easy-to-remember "swine flu," but that bit the dust after much protesting by the pork industry.
Then it was officially dubbed "novel H1N1 flu" by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which is both cryptic and a little too politically correct.
Around the world, the virus that has been causing this year's outbreak has been called everything from "Mexican virus" to "new flu." But with all of these terms being thrown around, it's hard to know what's what.
First of all, "H1N1" isn't the exact name for the particular strain that everyone is worried about, since most seasonal flu cases are also of the H1N1 variety. To distinguish the current virus from the seasonal flu, health organizations have been adding words like "pandemic 2009" and "novel" to the standard "H1N1" in a rather futile attempt to reduce confusion.
The new H1N1 virus has also been called "novel influenza A," where "A" is the genus to which the virus belongs. So H1N1 is a strain of influenza A, as are H3N2 (seasonal flu) and H3N8 (horse flu).
And although it's a lot easier to say than "H1N1," the term "swine flu" isn't entirely correct either, since the new strain that's causing this pandemic is a combination of genetic material from two strains of influenza found in pigs, one from birds and one that infects humans. Past outbreaks of swine flu have included strains from both influenza A and C subtypes.
Furthermore, the flu virus didn't actually start in pigs in Mexico. Although the first reported cases did originate in Mexico, it's more likely that this strain was transferred from pigs to humans in Asia, and then was brought overseas to North America.
So what to call it? Swine-derived H1N1 pandemic 2009 novel influenza virus A seems like a safe bet.
