The swine flu is a new mutated version of a type of influenza that is common among pigs. This flu has recently been affecting many people in Mexico, the United States, and many other countries. The reason that it is called the swine flu virus is because it first originated in pigs. As said before, it has been a common illness up hogs but cases among humans were very rare until recently.
In most cases only a small percentage of people that worked directly with pigs got the swine flu but some how it has mutated to where it can be passed from human to human. Nobody is really sure how this happened or how contagious it is but it has clearly been spreading quickly among human.
Luckily for us doctors have found a couple drugs that seem to work well in fighting the swine flu. These two drugs are relenza and tamiflu, two common anti-viral drugs that are used against the regular human flu.
As of today thousands of people have been infected with the swine flu but there have been almost no deaths outside of Mexico. Also, of the people infected nearly all of them had recently visited Mexico.
If you feel that you might have the swine flu the CDC recommends that you visit a doctor ASAP and get tested to be sure that you are not infected.