Scientists discover astonishing flu that has recombined with swines birds and people, but say: "There's nothing to worry about."

Scientists keep a close eye on flu viruses that emerge from pigs. The animals are considered particularly susceptible to both avian and human viruses and a likely place where the kind of genetic reassortment can take place that might lead to a new form of pandemic flu, said Dr. John Treanor, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

SHOOT: Here's a case of recombination and scientists are saying, "No problem." It's also something researchers haven't seen before. "No problem." The swine flu's symptoms are fever, cough and sore throat, though some of the seven also experienced vomiting and diarrhea. Nice.

clipped from health.yahoo.com All of the seven victims recovered from the flu that combines pig, bird and human viruses in a way that researchers have not seen before, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The cases are a growing medical mystery because it's unclear how they caught the virus. The CDC said none of the seven people were in contact with pigs, which is how people usually catch swine flu. And only a few were in contact with each other. Still, health officials said it's not a cause for public alarm: The five in California and two in Texas all recovered, only one person was hospitalized and testing indicates some mainstream antiviral medications seem to work against the virus. CDC officials detected a virus with a unique combination of gene segments that have not been seen in people or pigs before. The bug contains human virus, avian virus from North America and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia.

Britain plans flu shots for everyone

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said a flu pandemic was "one of the most severe risks" facing the country, telling lawmakers that he had signed an agreement to secure the delivery of enough pandemic flu vaccines to cover every citizen.

Experts will formulate the vaccination once the strain of the virus has been identified. Officials said it was impossible to predict when the next pandemic would strike and what form it would take.

The last global flu pandemic — Hong Kong flu — struck in 1968, leading to approximately 1 million deaths worldwide and 80,000 in Britain, said a Department of Health spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

"We don't believe an influenza is imminent," the spokeswoman said.

NVDL: Not imminent perhaps, but it is an ongoing 'not-if-but-when' threat. I think this is excellent proactive behaviour on the part of Britain. Unfortunately it's the sort of thing only the wealthier nations can afford right now. I also think changing climate will both exacerbate and accelarate the trend. Migratory birds will begin to move into new areas, and so will this disease, allowing higher levels of opportunism and DNA recombinations.