What's in a name

It looks like the Israelis aren't the only ones who have problems with using the term "swine flu" to describe the virus that is threatening to become a global pandemic:

On April 27, Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack – former governor of the major hog-producing state of Iowa — was still calling it swine flu. But the next day, he was referring to it by its clunky, clinical name. "This really isn't swine flu," he said, "it's H1N1 virus. That's very, very important." He wanted the public to understand that the flu is not spread by eating pork.

"There are a lot of hard-working families whose livelihood depends on us conveying this message of safety," Vilsack said. "And it's not just simply pork production. It's also grain farmers because markets are very sensitive."

And while many government officials, including President Obama, have began referring to the virus and illness as "H1N1", some people in the scientific community don't think that's a good idea:

Scientists, it turns out, are very sensitive as well. According to NPR science correspondent Richard Knox, within the scientific community — and within CDC — there is a lot of tension about the Obama administration's insistence that the virus be referred to as "H1N1." Scientifically, H1N1 is a confusing term for this new flu virus. Two-thirds of the everyday flu viruses making the rounds this flu season are H1N1. And various forms of H1N1 have circulated in humans between 1918 and 1957, and then from 1977 until the present. (...) Ironically, swine flu is a more scientifically specific term for this strain than H1N1, Knox reports.

So while the term "swine flu" has been bad for pork producers and agriculture in general, there is a fear that using simply "H1N1" as a name will cause confusion and possibly even panic when people hear of an "H1H1" outbreak that is simply the normal seasonal flu virus. It could, I suppose, cause confusion as to whether or not a person is vaccinated, since this year's batch of flu vaccine IS specific for an H1N1 virus, but IS NOT effective against this particular (swine-origin) H1N1 type. For now, the CDC is referring to it as "Swine-origin Influenza A (H1N1) virus", but I wouldn't really expect that to catch on outside of the scientific community.

My guess is that, in the future, it will be retroactively referred to as the 2009 Flu. Until then, who knows?