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• 10 things you should know about H1N1 (swineflu)
• 10 more things you should know about H1N1 (swineflu)

Source: CDC (Public domain)

Originally, this darn virus infected pigs, and it was reasonable to call it swine flu (even though it appears that some people don’t know that “swine” means “pig” :-)

But after it jumped from pigs to humans – the World Health Organization agrees that extensive human-to-human transmission is now happening – it’s no longer reasonable to go on calling it swine flu, and we have to find a new name.

So I’m following President Obama’s example, and from now on, I’ll be calling it H1N1. This virus has a longer scientific name (to distinguish it from other H1N1 viruses), but everyone’s going to know what you mean, so H1N1 is OK. (By the way, it is formally H1N1, not h1n1, but no-one at MicrobiologyBytes is going to worry about that).

So if you want to stay up to date with all the latest news about the H1N1 pandemic, follow MicroBytes on Twitter, where you’ll get the latest and most accurate H1N1 news.

Now where’s that bacon sandwich? :-)