COVID, Swine Flu, Or a Seasonal Flu? How To Tell Them Apart - The Quint

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First, a quick look at the basics.

All three illness are caused by different viruses that behave similarly and primarily attack your respiratory system.

Swine Flu was first broke out in the US in 2009 where the viral infection jumped from pigs to humans.

According to Mayo Clinic, it is caused by the H1N1 strain of the flu (influenza) virus.

COVID-19 on the other, was first identified in China, is caused by the SARS CoV-2 virus and is thought to have dumped from bats to humans.

It was declared a global pandemic by the WHO on 11 March 2020.

Infectiousness

COVID-19 is far more infectious than swine flu and common seasonal flu.

But, it is hard to compare the COVID caseload to that of the flu as, for one there is no reliable data on the global caseload of swine flu, and secondly, cases of the flu aren't always reported or recorded.

Deaths

According to the US CDC's estimates between 1,51,700 to 5,75,400 people worldwide have died from swine flu.

Compare that to the devastating death toll of COVID-19 where around 4.4 Million people worldwide have succumbed to the illness so far.

Swine flu is now an endemic and clubbed with seasonal flu that comes around cyclically.

'We see that cases of swine flu usually spike every alternate year. It happened in 2019, and it's happening now, so it's not unexpected," says Dr Ravi Shekhar Jha, Additional Director and Head of Department, Pulmonology, Fortis Escorts Hospital Faridabad.

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