Swine flu strain began here [refers to a different version in 2005]
Newsweek says it was found in Sheboygan teen in 2005
Sheboygan Press staff ? May 5, 2009
A variation of the swine flu virus causing global alarm amid a rising death toll was first discovered in 2005 in a Sheboygan teen.
The 17-year-old boy contracted the virus ? which is a mix of swine, avian and human flu ? after helping butcher pigs and being exposed to chickens, according to published reports. The case was the first known mixing of the three flu strains, but it is a different strain than the current outbreak and not related to it, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
"This (current swine flu) is the same type with some of the same components, but this one hasn't been seen before," said spokesman Seth Boffeli.
Boffeli noted that the teen did not pass the virus to anyone else and the boy recovered within days after experiencing symptoms consistent with typical seasonal flu, Boffeli said.
Dr. Jeff Davis, the state's chief medical officer, said the comparison of flu strains is vital to research, but "it would be incorrect to infer that the virus isolated from a human in Wisconsin in 2005 is the same virus as the H1N1 virus currently circulating."
The Sheboygan link was first reported by Newsweek magazine in a cover story, "The Path of a Pandemic," which hit newsstands Monday.
"Largely ignored at the time, the Wisconsin virus was a step along the evolutionary tree, leading to a virus that four years later would stun the world," author Laurie Garrett says in the story.
Sheboygan's role in the history of the growing swine flu pandemic came to light as Sheboygan County on Monday reported its third probable case of the virus, formally H1N1. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services as of Monday had reported three confirmed cases of swine flu in Wisconsin and 102 probable cases, all tied to an outbreak that began in Mexico this March.
The teen in the 2005 case, who is not identified, fell ill three days after helping his brother-in-law butcher a pig at a slaughterhouse, according to an account of the case published in September in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The boy wore no respiratory protection as he held the pig ? one of 31 butchered there ? while his brother-in-law eviscerated it.
"The most plausible source of the patient's swine influenza A virus infection was respiratory secretions of freshly killed pigs," said the article, which is co-authored by Jeanne Beinemann, a county health supervisor, and five others.
There were also chickens at the slaughterhouse, though none were killed that day, the journal article said. The boy also may have been exposed to a chicken when, eight days before he fell ill, his father kept a chicken in the house for a day prior to sacrificing it in a ritual ceremony. The boy did not go near the chicken or attend the ceremony.
A mix of swine, avian and human flu had been discovered in swine as early as 1998, so it is possible the boy was infected with a virus from the pig that already contained all three strains, the journal article said. State and local public health officials were unable to confirm the pigs as the source of the virus since the pigs came from multiple farms and were not tested in time.
The boy fell ill Dec. 7, 2005, and recovered within three days, the journal article said. Newsweek reported the virus was tested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which discovered the virus had genetic material matching a human flu first seen in New Caledonia in 1999, two swine types circulating in Asia and Wisconsin for several years and an unknown avian-flu virus.
The strains can combine when multiple viruses penetrate a cell simultaneously, causing the cell's chromosomes to reproduce using pieces from each of the viruses, the Newsweek article said.
Reach Eric Litke at (920) 453-5119 and elitke@sheboygan-press.com.
http://www.sheboyganpress.com:80/article/20090505/SHE0101/905050416/1062/SHE01/Swine+flu+strain+began+here
Newsweek says it was found in Sheboygan teen in 2005
Sheboygan Press staff ? May 5, 2009
A variation of the swine flu virus causing global alarm amid a rising death toll was first discovered in 2005 in a Sheboygan teen.
The 17-year-old boy contracted the virus ? which is a mix of swine, avian and human flu ? after helping butcher pigs and being exposed to chickens, according to published reports. The case was the first known mixing of the three flu strains, but it is a different strain than the current outbreak and not related to it, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
"This (current swine flu) is the same type with some of the same components, but this one hasn't been seen before," said spokesman Seth Boffeli.
Boffeli noted that the teen did not pass the virus to anyone else and the boy recovered within days after experiencing symptoms consistent with typical seasonal flu, Boffeli said.
Dr. Jeff Davis, the state's chief medical officer, said the comparison of flu strains is vital to research, but "it would be incorrect to infer that the virus isolated from a human in Wisconsin in 2005 is the same virus as the H1N1 virus currently circulating."
The Sheboygan link was first reported by Newsweek magazine in a cover story, "The Path of a Pandemic," which hit newsstands Monday.
"Largely ignored at the time, the Wisconsin virus was a step along the evolutionary tree, leading to a virus that four years later would stun the world," author Laurie Garrett says in the story.
Sheboygan's role in the history of the growing swine flu pandemic came to light as Sheboygan County on Monday reported its third probable case of the virus, formally H1N1. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services as of Monday had reported three confirmed cases of swine flu in Wisconsin and 102 probable cases, all tied to an outbreak that began in Mexico this March.
The teen in the 2005 case, who is not identified, fell ill three days after helping his brother-in-law butcher a pig at a slaughterhouse, according to an account of the case published in September in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The boy wore no respiratory protection as he held the pig ? one of 31 butchered there ? while his brother-in-law eviscerated it.
"The most plausible source of the patient's swine influenza A virus infection was respiratory secretions of freshly killed pigs," said the article, which is co-authored by Jeanne Beinemann, a county health supervisor, and five others.
There were also chickens at the slaughterhouse, though none were killed that day, the journal article said. The boy also may have been exposed to a chicken when, eight days before he fell ill, his father kept a chicken in the house for a day prior to sacrificing it in a ritual ceremony. The boy did not go near the chicken or attend the ceremony.
A mix of swine, avian and human flu had been discovered in swine as early as 1998, so it is possible the boy was infected with a virus from the pig that already contained all three strains, the journal article said. State and local public health officials were unable to confirm the pigs as the source of the virus since the pigs came from multiple farms and were not tested in time.
The boy fell ill Dec. 7, 2005, and recovered within three days, the journal article said. Newsweek reported the virus was tested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which discovered the virus had genetic material matching a human flu first seen in New Caledonia in 1999, two swine types circulating in Asia and Wisconsin for several years and an unknown avian-flu virus.
The strains can combine when multiple viruses penetrate a cell simultaneously, causing the cell's chromosomes to reproduce using pieces from each of the viruses, the Newsweek article said.
Reach Eric Litke at (920) 453-5119 and elitke@sheboygan-press.com.
http://www.sheboyganpress.com:80/article/20090505/SHE0101/905050416/1062/SHE01/Swine+flu+strain+began+here