Since May 17, 2009 the number of such cases of swine flu infected travellers to India increased to 30 by June 19, 2007.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the outbreak as global pandemic and till June 19, 2009 there had been 44287 H1N1 confirmed cases and 180 human deaths as the deadly virus already engulfed several regions of the globe including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Martinique, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, Sint Maarten, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Isle of Man, Jersey, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, West Bank and Gaza Strip and Yemen. Mexico, the epicentre of the current pandemic recorded number of confirmed cases at 7624 and deaths at 113.

Aware of the consequences of the pandemic countries have imposed quarantine checks at international airports. Though the WHO has not suggested any travel restrictions the global tourism is doubly impacted by the pandemic and recession.

India had earlier suffered the impact of the incidence of bird flu three times with the poultry industry taking a beating and ban imposed on Indian poultry imports by different countries. In recent times, the world had suffered the outbreak of SARS, Anthrax apart from that of bird flu and therefore needs to be careful to prevent such incidences.

Swine flu virus, unlike the bird flu virus, has caused more human deaths. This is not the first time the world is witnessing the incidence of swine flu. It was first detected in 1918 at a US military camp Funston, Fort Riley when troops were preparing for vaccination programme. It was declared pandemic when pigs became sick at the same time as humans and was commonly known as Spanish flu which killed 500,000 Americans and 40 million people worldwide. In February 1976 the death of a soldier at Fort Dix in US confirmed the presence of swine flue virus However, the virus was not reported to have spread beyond Fort Dix. In September, 1988 swine flu virus was found in pigs in four states in US and within a year it spread to pig population in the country. It killed one woman in Wisconsin and infected at least .hundred of others. In August 20, 2007 Philippines department of agriculture investigated the outbreak of swine flu in Nueva Ecija and Central Luzon and raised hog cholera red alert.

However, despite such past outbreaks, many questions about its origins, its unusual epidemiologic features, and the basis of its pathogenicity still remain unanswered. Experts believe that the cause of 2009 swine flu which was detected in La Gloria in Veracruz state in Mexico has a different strain of H1N1 virus.

The US Administration's Center for Disease Control (CDC) on its website has said : “Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza virus that cause regular outbreaks in pigs. People do not normally get swine flu, but human infection can and do happen. Swine flu viruses have been reported to spread from person-to-person, but in the past, this transmission was limited and not sustained beyond three people.”

According to some scientists swine virus having new strains might have become virulent by randomly mutating through the process of natural selection and become virulent. The other possibility is that the virus might have been bio-engineered for production of vaccine and might have escaped from the lab due to human error. The WHO is investigating an Australian researcher's claim that the virus have been created due to human error. Among global leaders, the Indonesian health minister, Siti Fadilah was quick in saying; “I'm not sure whether the virus was genetically engineered but it's a possibility.”

Some believe that the origin of the new strain of swine flu virus was due to the unhygienic conditions and concentration of about 950,000 pigs in the commercial farm of Granja Carroll in La Gloria in Mexico, a subsidiary of the US company, Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer. However, the World Organisation for Animal Health - OIE - reported that this strain has not been isolated in pigs. Acting under the pressure from the global meat industry, the WHO has stopped calling the pandemic as swine flu. It has now preferred to call it H1N1 pandemic. The pork industry is suffering heavy losses as the initial news of the spread of swine flu led to slaughter of pigs in Egypt and dip in global exports.

Even though new vaccine strains have not been developed to counter the deadly virus, the global pharma companies like Roche, Gilead, Glaxo SmithKline are making a killing through the sales of antivirals like Tamiflu and Relaxin. The US Administration has already opened an emergency window in its authorisation system to allow Tamiflu and Relaxin to be used more widely on flu sufferers than allowed. Even the small vaccine producers like Biocryst and Novavax are hiving for profit. India, however has moved with caution. It has only stockpiled Tamiflu and has not authorised its retail sales. “Indiscriminate use of this drug by the public could result in the virus developing resistance to this only known treatment of the H1N1 influenza,” an official advisory said.#