Swine Flu Variant Outbreak

     The flu vaccine immunizes you against the swine flu, H3N2, but there has been a recent outbreak of a variant of this virus, called H3N2v, which variant has extra genetic material. It is associated with being in close proximity to live pigs, and so far there has been one death. It probably behooves us to get the flu shot early this year, and to avoid live pigs if you have any immune deficiencies or suffer from a chronic disease. The link to the article posted by the cdc is http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swineflu/h3n2v-outbreak.htm.