On Sept. 1, the home page for the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention website said: “Since July 2012, 288 people from 10 states are reported to have been infected with an influenza A H3N2 variant virus (H3N2v) with the matrix (M) gene from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus. There have been 15 H3N2v-associated hospitalizations and one H3N2v-associated death.”
The announcement went on to say that “investigations . . . indicate that the main risk factor for infection is exposure to pigs; mostly in fair settings. Found in U.S. pigs in 2010 and humans in July 2011, this virus appears to spread more easily from pigs to people than other variant viruses.”