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This swine flu is unusual because it combines virus segments from 3 different animals - birds, pigs and humans - and also from 3 different continents - Europe, Asia and North America.
As the Wall Street Journal puts it:
In addition to genetic material associated with North American swine flu, the strain has gene segments associated with European and Asian swine flu, North American avian flu and human flu.
(confirmed here).
It is essential for epidemiologists and virologists to weigh in on this issue. If this is a natural occurrence, they need to do a better job of explaining how it happened. This is especially true given that the Indonesian health minister has just said this might be a man-made disease, and a retired Army General has also raised the possibility. If this is naturally-occuring, it is imperative to get the word out.
If not, we need to know that immediately.
