Pattaya Business and Tourism Association Prepares for the Second Wave of the Swine Flu

It was decided that many measures can be taken in preparation for the high season and new years period to reduce infection rates.

The meeting was held at the Green Park hotel and was chaired by Pattaya Deputy Mayor Mr. Wirawat Khakai and was attended by Mr. Akarawit Thepasit, Deputy Director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand Pattaya Office, along with representatives from Pattaya businesses.

Mr. Jumroon Visavachaiyaphant, President of the Pattaya Business and Tourism Association stated, “There have been reports stating that the swine flu is spreading once again in America and many parties have been trying to find ways to prevent the spread. The previous spread of the swine flu has affected Pattaya to a great extent so we do not want it to happen again.”

The meeting was concluded with agreements from all business owners to regularly clean their business. It is hoped that the New Year will be introduced with a worry free beginning.

Swine influenza was first proposed to be a disease related to human influenza during the 1918 flu pandemic, when pigs became sick at the same time as humans. The first identification of an influenza virus as a cause of disease in pigs occurred about ten years later in 1930. For the following 60 years, swine influenza strains were almost exclusively H1N1. Then, between 1997 and 2002, new strains of three different subtypes and five different genotypes emerged as causes of influenza among pigs in North America. In 1997–1998, H3N2 strains emerged. These strains, which include genes derived by reassortment from human, swine and avian viruses, have become a major cause of swine influenza in North America. Reassortment between H1N1 and H3N2 produced H1N2. In 1999 in Canada, a strain of H4N6 crossed the species barrier from birds to pigs, but was contained on a single farm.

The H1N1 form of swine flu is one of the descendants of the strain that caused the 1918 flu pandemic. As well as persisting in pigs, the descendants of the 1918 virus have also circulated in humans through the 20th century, contributing to the normal seasonal epidemics of influenza However, direct transmission from pigs to humans is rare, with only 12 cases in the U.S. since 2005. Nevertheless, the retention of influenza  strains in pigs after these strains have disappeared from the human population might make pigs a reservoir where influenza viruses could persist, later emerging to reinfect humans once human immunity to these strains has waned.

Swine flu has been reported numerous times as a zoonosis in humans, usually with limited distribution, rarely with a widespread distribution. Outbreaks in swine are common and cause significant economic losses in industry, primarily by causing stunting and extended time to market. For example, this disease costs the British meat industry about £65 million every year.