He should not be using an alternative name. BIG PIG has been frantic all over the world to change the name.

BIG PIG America deliberately changed the name of the deadly porcine circovirus "for PR reasons", as did BIG PIG Europe to something different. It now has dozens and names and identities, defeating even Google. That disaster is yet to be unravelled, we do not need confusion over Swine Fu too.

Love them or loath them, the naming seems to be the prerogative of the WHO: the EU have been challenging them as well as the US pig people with quite a few variations. The EU even admitted that it was to protect the pork industry

It is a plot to deceive. Fortunately, they can't agree.

So far we get:

Mexican Flu
North American Flu
Novel Flu

and variations thereto.

All from organisations desperate to suggest it has nothing to do with pigs, even before we know that for sure.

Fortunately Joe Public is good at sniffing out this kind of deceit. They are all wasting their time.

Pig Flu is what it will remain.

The English language brings with it a love of simple language and sensible consistant naming. Try to manipulate it, it bites back.

They are trying to put "English" on the ball, a term not widely understood in England itself.

Actually, the news is currently spreading from a lab in Scotland that it is much more closely linked to pigs than hitherto admitted.

We shall have to see, but it will not change the name in common use.

Regards
Pat Gardiner

The CDC sponsored study that you cite refers to "invasive sterile site" MRSA infections. It is well-known that sterile site infections (which primarily means blood stream infections) are a minority of all MRSA infections acquired in healthcare. The most recent data on the overall amount of MRSA infections are from a 2007 survey that was sponsored by the Association for Professionals in Healthcare and Epidemiology (APIC). That survey showed that approximately 1.2 million MRSA infections occurred in the US that year and that approximately 86% of them were healthcare-associated MRSA (HA MRSA).

We all need to be on guard that while MRSA infections acquired outside of healthcare should not be discounted there are many people who want to divert attention from HA MRSA by shifting the focus to community-acquired MRSA (CA MRSA).

Also, it's important to understand that because healthcare institutions have not routinely used active detection and barrier precautions to control MRSA, all strains of MRSA, including those traditionally associated with healthcare, are now endemic in hospitals, nursing homes and dialysis clinics across the country.

Pat and Michael, thank you for your enlighting comments. Steve, do you think swine flu is being blown out of proportion by the news media, hungry for sensational news?

Wayne and Steve,
Thank you for your comments. You both have different ideas and that is what makes these comments interesting.
Personally, I think MRSA is the big one, maybe VRE, but not swine flu.
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