The Differences between the 1976 Swine Flu and the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic

Prior to the 2009 outbreak of the H1N1 swine flu virus, there was another outbreak of the swine flu in the year of 1976 at a military facility in the state of New Jersey. A young soldier by the name of David Lewis from the state of Massachusetts became ill and died only twenty four hours after complaining of tiredness and fatigue.

The medical testing that was done revealed that Lewis had died from a form of influenza that had not been seen since during the plague of 1918-1919 that took the lives of half a million Americans and twenty million individuals worldwide. Further testing confirmed that the virus had spread to two hundred other soldiers through person to person contact. 

The Swine Flu Vaccine of 1976 and Guillain-Barré Syndrome

In response to the outbreak the "ACIP" or "Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices" made the decision to begin an immunization program in fear of the swine flu becoming a pandemic. Shortly after the vaccine program was through a national campaign, the vaccine was associated with the development of "GBS" or "Guillain-Barré Syndrome" in some individuals.

GBS is a disorder of the immune systems that causes the muscles to become weakened and in some cases it can cause paralysis and in extremely rare cases it can be fatal. At this time medical experts were beginning to realize that the 1976 swine flu was not becoming the epidemic that they had feared and due to the vaccines association with GBS the vaccination program was stopped. 

The 2009 H1N1 Vaccine

While the 1976 swine flu vaccinations were associated with GBS, this condition is also found throughout the general population in some individuals who have not been vaccinated. The "CDC" or "Center for Disease Control" estimates that one in one hundred thousand individuals who received the 1976 swine flu vaccine developed GBS which is only slightly higher than the percentage of individuals who develop GBS without having been vaccinated, therefore, while the CDC continues to monitor the newer 2009 H1N1 vaccine for any suspected cases of GBS, it appears that given the fact that the H1N1 swine flu has become a global pandemic, the benefits of receiving the new vaccine far outweigh the risks. 

Unfortunately, those individuals who received the vaccination in 1976 are not protected from this latest strain of the H1N1 virus. This is due to the fact that while H1N1 is often used to describe the swine flu, there are literally hundreds and possibly thousands of different types of the swine flu and the 2009 H1N1 swine flu is different than the one that was discovered in the year of 1976. Therefore, for every new strain of H1N1 typically a different vaccination must be developed that is capable of protecting against the current strain of H1N1.