Spain’s Health Ministry confirms the second case of swine flu in the country

The first case of swine flu in Europe in Spain is the 23-year-old man who returned from Mexico April 22 and remains isolated at the General Hospital of Almansa in Albacete, said Trinidad Jiménez, Spain’s Health Minister. Today she confirmed the second case, a 24-year-old man who was admitted to the La Fe Hospital in Valencia. He had also travelled to Mexico and will be discharged soon, she said. Swine flu is a highly contagious respiratory illness that is principally found in pigs. It belongs to type A flu and its mortality index in humans is between 1 and 4 percent. This flu is rarely passed on to humans but takes place when they come in contact with animals that are carrying the disease. In most human cases, what has coincided is a close exposition to the animals, particularly on pig farms. Infection through eating pork has been ruled out from the beginning, so it’s safe to eat pork and and pork by-products. The symptoms of swine flu are cough, fever, muscular pain, headache – all of which are very similar to normal flu. It’s because of this that it’s hard to identify based on external symptoms. Effective medicines that are giving good results exist against this type of flu. For example, the medicine Tamiflu, also used during bird flu outbreaks, is efficient against swine flu. According to Jiménez, the Spanish government counts on more than 10 million doses of Tamiflu for this type of epidemic. The only requisite is that the sickness, which has an incubation period of 10 days, be detected soon. The newspaper El mundo has an interactive map online that is updated frequently to show swine flu evolution in the Spanish communities.