Swine Flu Virus - What is the Swine Flu? Learn the facts.

Swine flu symptoms, causes and prevention tips by Vinay Gupta
Swine flu is a type of virus. It’s named for a virus that infects mainly pigs. It normally does not infect people, but human infections can and do happen. The virus is contagious and can spread from human to human. The current swine influenza A (H1N1) virus has components of pig and bird influenza viruses in it, so the humans don’t have any immunity to it. That makes it more likely to become a pandemic virus (have the ability to cause a global outbreak) if it can easily spread from person-to-person. There are antiviral medicines you can take to prevent or treat swine flu symptoms. This particular virus is resistant to the antiviral medications amantadine (Symmetrel) and rimantadine (Flumadine), but is sensitive to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza). There is no vaccine available right now to protect against swine flu.
Symptoms

Definition of Swine

Pronunciation:
\’swīn\

Function:
noun

Inflected Form(s):
plural swine

Etymology:
Middle English, from Old English swīn; akin to Old High German swīn swine, Latin sus — more at sow

Date:
before 12th century

1: any of various stout-bodied short-legged omnivorous artiodactyl mammals (family Suidae)
with a thick bristly skin and a long flexible snout ; especially : a domesticated one descended from the wild boar
2: a contemptible person

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Swine

suid

hoofed mammal