Abuja — The media has been accused of sowing confusion among members of the public and in the process causing loss among farmers over the true origin of what it describes as swine flu.

The chief veterinary officer in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Joseph Nyager, told THISDAY, that the so-called swine flu is a human disease and not that of pigs; as it is being portrayed.

"What we call swine flu is actually a misnomer," Nyager said. "It is actually know as H1N1. Why do I call the term a misnomer? It is because when you call it swine flu, people tend to associate it with pigs. But this is a disease of human beings."

Even globally, H1N1is "an emerging disease", the expert said. Because it has only recently come to the attention of the public, some aspects of it have not yet been fully understood. What has been known for sure is that, even where there been cases of H1N1 in pigs, the transmission has been from humans who had H1N1 to pigs where they came in contact.

Nyager said he had been watching the coverage of the disease in the media with concern. The coverage of H1N1 stories in the press and electronic media makes more sense to the media as swine flu because there is a strong association.

"But it is a wrong connection because that name is a misnomer," Nyager added. "I know that the media wants to sell their news, whether it is the newspaper or electronic news. So when you use the term swine flu, it is very catchy. Maybe someone is sleepy and you tell him about H1N1, it sounds too technical. They may not bother. But when you say swine flu and people see pictures of dead pigs, it easily connects;

"What I want to say clearly is that this is not a disease of pigs. It is primarily a disease of human beings. People are not supposed to be scared of raising and eating pork products or trading in pigs and pig products," he elaborated.

The chief veterinary officer then compared the coverage of the disease by Nigerian and the international press and noted that when the disease first came out most of the international media was using the term swine flu.

"Although every now and then, some of the international media still uses the name swine flu, "because to them it is news," but a lot of the time they do the right thing and call the disease H1N1. But in Nigeria where the first casualties of the disease were discovered this week, there is a wholesale of the term swine flu.

"Whether it is the local or international media which is using the name swine flu, they are wrong. And any authority who is using swine flu is also wrong because the name is H1N1."

He further said that the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), which is the recognised international body that advises governments and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on issues of this nature, has never made an effort to link H1N1 with pigs. And OIE has over 30 of listed diseases.

"H1N1 or what you are calling swine flu was not on that list until that outbreak in Mexico," Nyager said. "But now, if there is anything new, it will be reported to OIE. Because it is an emerging disease, they will need to know. Other than that, there is no restriction placed on the trade of pigs. No one has put any restrictions on swine and swine-related trade and on flying them across (national) borders;

"I just want to assure you that anybody who is interested in pork and pork products that these things that you are hearing that there is the virus in Nigeria does not mean that you should be scared from raising pigs," the federal livestock official said.

"What we are doing is that, ordinarily, we carry out surveillance for animal diseases so that we can pick up diseases. When you are doing surveillance and something is introduced we will know and we will pick and when we are doing surveillance that disease is no longer there, we will know;

"And you know that you have control and the disease is no longer there. We are doing our surveillance and we are not doing it because someone has died. But we are increasing our surveillance because this is major disease and there could be the case that it will affect the flock here or there for one reason or the other. But I want to assure you that it is primarily a disease of human beings", he added.

Asked if there are no simpler ways of naming animals, Nyager said, "In the past, if you discovered a disease in an area, you named it after that geographic area. That is why you have Spanish flu. But people are a bit cautious now and, of course, the Mexicans would not want it to be named Mexican influenza because it is like a taboo;

"H1N1 is actually the name of a virus. It is actually an influenza and what we know about influenza is that generally animals can be good mixers of influenza viruses. And there are different types of influenza. You have the common flu and you have the Avian influenza, which have heard about;

"Avian flu is H5N1; they are designated like that. You have H7N2. What you are calling swine flu, as I have said, is H1NI. It is the way of naming in medicine and diseases generally. To me, I don't see anything complication about this; H1N1 is clear enough", he added.