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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Why H1N1 Spread so fast in Malaysia

*modified*
This is not a truly original post but about an article I read in The Sun today.

What does H1N1 mean?
As the strain originated from America and since America is in the northern hemisphere, it was named "A(H1N1)'. ~by Doctor H.

This is obviously wrong.

The real answer was given by a government veterinarian.
In A(H1N1), A refers to the influenza category.

The H is haemagglutinin, a surface protein that binds the virus to the host cell that is being attacked.

N stands for neuraminidase, an enzyme that penetrates the host cell.

Both H and N are present in the cell membrane of the viruses.

There are 16 kinds of H and only ninekinds of N. And that is why we have numerical digits in the influenza strains.

The bracketed letters and numbers refer to the specific strain or sub-type of the category,Dr K explained.

If you do not believe me click on the picture to enlarge or go to sun2surf.com and check out today's paper page 3.

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