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H1N1 Risk

What is the risk for human health? Outbreaks of human infection from a virus which came from pigs (swine influenza) do happen and are sometimes reported. Symptoms will generally be similar to seasonal human influenzas - this can range from mild or no symptoms at all, to severe and possibly fatal pneumonia.

 
As swine flu symptoms are similar to typical human seasonal flu swine flusymptoms, and other upper respiratory tract infections, detection of swine flu in humans often does not happen, and when it does it is usually purely by chance through seasonal influenza surveillance.

If symptoms are mild it is extremely unlikely that any connection to swine influenza is found - even if it is there. In other words, unless the doctors and experts are specifically looking for swine flu, it is rarely detected. Because of this, we really do not know what the true human infection rate is.