The WHO still recommends Tamiflu to be the most effective medication

The World Health Organisation which has set up a special team who are closely monitoring the swine influenza virus have released the number of observations regarding its characteristics which could be useful to doctors in treating and understanding the disease.

Firstly they said that the H1N1 virus strain is unusual in that it has not been seen previously in animals or humans and thus there is very little natural immunity in the autoimmune systems of humans except in cases of some older people who have built up immunity to alot of viruses over the years.

Another observation made by the WHO was that the new swine influenza virus was more contagious than regular seasonal influenza and thus the secondary attack rate was in the region of between 22 and 33 percent. Regular seasonal influenza viruses tend to have a secondary attack rate of between 5% and 15%.

The World Health Organisation said that from their data it appeared that all of those who had died from the H1N1 virus had underlying health conditions which weakened their resistance to it and the majority of people who contracted it also had other health problems. Another characteristic of this new swine flu virus is that while it does affect all age groups it has been seen in younger people more so than regular influenza viruses.

The big concern that scientists have is that they don’t fully understand the swine influenza virus and cannot predict exactly in which way it will change and mutate. It is important that all swine flu cases are carefully documented so that if it becomes more contagious or more severe action can be taken quickly.

At present the World Health Organisation still recommends Tamiflu to be the most effective medication to deal with the swine influenza virus.