The first Swine flu viruses were isolated in 1930 in the United States in pigs.
The most famous early swine flu outbreak in humans was in 1976 at Fort Dix, New Jersey where four soldiers who were previously healthy contracted the virus and developed pneumonia diagnosed by X-ray with other symptoms of the flu. One died as a result. The virus was thought to have circulated approximately a month in the close quarters of the group in basic training but not outside the group, then it disappeared.
In the fall of 1988, a previously healthy 32-year-old pregnant woman was hospitalized for pneumonia and died 8 days later. A swine H1N1 flu virus was detected. Four days before getting sick, the patient visited a county fair swine exhibition where there was widespread influenza-like illness among the swine.
The 2009 pandemic of Influenza A, Novel H1N1 "swine flu" was first detected in Mexico City and was made public March 18, 2009. This new strain of virus has been tracked back to a child from a small village in Mexico (where there was close proximity to hog farms) as the probable first infected individual.
The village was La Gloria, a small town in southern Mexico. La Gloria has about 3,000 people, and it is now believed the first human cases of the Novel H1N1 Influenza probably started there. The first known person to have contracted the 2009 H1N1 Influenza was a young boy named Edgar Hernandez from La Gloria. He survived the virus.
Although a particular pig farm in Mexico was thought to have perhaps had the first case of the flu among pigs, the Mexican government tested and found no evidence of that at the farm. It is now believed that the first case among pigs was more likely at a different farm in Texas.
The first cases in the US were discovered in March and early April in Southern California and near San Antonio, Texas.
Since then the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a Pandemic. That means that it is world wide and spreading quickly from human to human. The pandemic has continued with increasing spread human to human around the globe.
