What is the common name of H1N1?

Answer 1

H5N1, commonly called "Bird flu" is a strain of avian flu (the types of flu that birds get). Normally, it's not a threat to humans and is carried by birds who give it to other birds. However, this strain has now mutated and spread to both wild and domesticated birds, and has begun spreading to mammals such as pigs. Humans and other mammals have been infected with the flu by direct contact with the infected birds or their saliva or feces. There have been a few very very rare cases of human to human transmission when an infected person lived closely with another person.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) web pages: Avian influenza ("bird flu") is an infectious disease of birds caused by type A strains of the influenza virus. The infection can cause a wide spectrum of symptoms in birds, ranging from mild illness, which may pass unnoticed, to a rapidly fatal disease that can cause severe epidemics.

Avian influenza viruses do not normally infect humans. However, there have been instances of certain highly pathogenic strains causing severe respiratory disease in humans. In most cases, the people infected had been in close contact with infected poultry or with objects contaminated by their feces. Nevertheless, there is concern that the virus could mutate to become more easily transmissible between humans, raising the possibility of an influenza pandemic.

More:

The bird flu, or Avian Influenza, is a potentially deadly sickness that can be transferred from infected birds to people. So far, there have not been as many deaths from it as from other strains of influenza viruses in people, but due to the vast number of poultry farms in places such as India and China where people and birds are often living very close together, the potential threat is great for even pandemic proportions of related illness.

The highly pathogenic Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 is only one subtype of avian influenza-causing virus.

A current worry by public health organizations world wide is that this very aggressive virus will mutate making it more easily transmissible to humans. With the Swine Flu (A-H1N1/09) from the 2009 pandemic, which is a highly contagious flu virus in humans, there is always concern that it could combine with H5N1 to a mutated reassortant strain that would have the easy transmission of H1N1 and the severity of symptoms and death of H5N1.

While a pandemic is possible at any time, keep in mind that the human toll from widespread outbreaks are lessened with each outbreak, thanks to better understanding of disease and progressive research and medical breakthrough.

The US government has set up a very good website explaining flu viruses and what we can do collectively and individually to protect ourselves and others from their spread.

See the link to this site in the related links section below.

On the lighter side:

Bird flu is when birds fly in the past tense.

Answer 2

Hemagglutinin and Neuraminidase of coarse.

Answer 3

Pandemic Influenza