The recent swine flu endemic has caused chaos among the world's population. It has appeared in the US, Canada, Spain, New Zealand, France and very recent cases have been reported in Australia also. This virus first emerged in Mexico one month ago and is now proliferating at an uncontrollable rate. Swine flu has been around for years but this is the new strain of H1N1 swine flu which enables the virus to spread from human to human with ease. The World Health Organisation has issued a pandemic alert in order to caution countries to prepare for the effects of this new flu. However, scientists from the US Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia have essentially identified the specific genetic code of the virus. It is claimed that this full genome sequence consists of a mix of swine, human and avian strains of H1N1 influenza. This new strain of virus came from the reassortment of genetic material, which usually occurs when an animal is infected with multiple viruses simultaneously. Hopefully this insight into the makeup of the viruse's genome will indicate whether the current influenza vaccines will be effective against the swine flu, and if not that, it will provide the basis for the synthesis of new vaccines.
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