Swine Flu is caused by an influenza virus commonly found in pigs. Though of common occurrence in pigs, it is rarely fatal and even more rarely is it transferred to human beings. However, over the years a new strain of the Swine flu has been discovered which gets transferred to the human population and the transmission causes a human influenza called Zoonotic Swine Flu. The transmission commonly happens when people work or live in close proximity to pigs. Intensive pig farming is one of the largest areas of risk from this point of view.

Once introduced in the human population, it can easily spread like other airborne influenza diseases. In 2009 a swine flu outbreak started from Veracruz, Mexico and soon spread across the globe. Cases were reported from Europe and East and South Asia in pandemic volumes. Thousands of people became victims to the disease and the World Health Organization declared a worldwide pandemic. Though the spread of H1N1 has now been relatively controlled, there might be occasions in the future where an outbreak may affect us again. It therefore becomes necessary to recognize the symptoms so that incase of an unfortunate outbreak, we would be able to take corrective measures at the earliest. Some of the symptoms of Swine flu are listed below:

- Most symptoms of swine flu are similar to other forms of influenza. The patients show signs of common cold and cough. This is also accompanied with slight fever, body ache and sore throat. The patients often complain of fatigue and chills. The outbreak of 2009 also reported an increasing number of patients suffering of vomiting and diarrhea.

- In the 2009 H1N1outbreak, hundreds of people across the world lost their lives. Respiratory failure was the major cause of death among these victims. Other causes of death have been noted as electrolyte imbalance, high fever (resulting in neurological complications), pneumonia, and dehydration (caused due to excessive diarrhea and vomiting).

- The common symptoms among children suffering from Swine flu are fever with rashes; the skin color turns bluish and difficulty in breathing is experienced or fast breathing, in addition to the common flu symptoms.

- One of the biggest difficulties in the path of the treatment of the H1N1/ Swine flu happens to be the common misdiagnosis of the disease. Since the symptoms are same as the common flu, it might not be correctly diagnosed in time. The only sure diagnosis of confirmed swine flu is through laboratory tests of respiratory samples.