继禽流感之后，又一个与动物相关的疫情“甲型H1N1流感”正在来势汹汹地对人类构成威胁，除了重灾区墨西哥以及毗邻的美国已发现不少例“甲型H1N1流感”感染甚至死亡的疫情之外，我国香港地区也在5月1日确认发现了第一起人感染“甲型H1N1流感”病例，而多达189人与香港确诊的那位墨西哥籍甲型H1N1流感患者同乘墨西哥飞上海的航班，由此可见，对于“甲型H1N1流感”的危险性，我们切莫等闲视之。
在全球媒体铺天盖地的“甲型H1N1流感”疫情报道中，甲型H1N1流感曾被普遍称为“猪流感”，虽然之后世卫组织就明确表示用“猪流感”表示此次疫情并不合适，但毕竟这已经是一个家喻户晓的词语。相信读者已经注意到，“猪流感”在英语中的说法并非pig flu而是swine flu，也就是说，这里的“猪”不是使用了我国广大英语学习者很熟悉的pig一词，而是使用了很多人所不熟悉的单词swine。
英语中用来称呼“猪”的单词除了大家熟悉的pig之外还有swine和hog，就这三个单词的词义而言，pig无疑是目前最常用的单词，“养猪场”就叫做pig farm，养猪的农民就叫做pig farmer，“养猪”是raise pig，“养猪业”就是pig industry等等。Swine的词义现在更多时候已经发生变化，含有明显的贬义，通常被用来表示“猪猡”，“下流胚”等。Hog主要是美国英语用法，倾向于指已经养得膘肥体壮可以进入屠宰程序的猪(“Hog”will generally refer to animals at or nearing market weight or finished for market)。
在上述三个单词中，swine虽然目前在英语词汇中已经偏离其表示“猪”的本义，但是许多英语辞典指出它也是一个专业说法，也就是说，它是“猪”的术语说法，如同“猪瘟”在英语中叫做swine fever一样。因此，“猪流感”就被称为swine flu而不是pig flu。不过，著名的网络百科全书wikipedia对“猪流感”有着如下解释：
Swine influenza (also called swine flu, hog flu or pig flu) refers to an influenza caused by any strain of the influenza virus endemic in pigs (swine). Strains endemic in swine are called swine influenza virus。
上述释义明确了“猪流感”就是swine flu，但是，hog flu和pig flu这样的说法也并非不可以。只是相对而言，swine flu更专业更正式一些，也成为媒体所接受的固定用法。从世卫组织对swine flu的定义a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses that causes regular outbreaks in pigs也可以看出，swine只是一个更加专业的说法，或者说已成为一个约定俗成的说法，但其实质就是pig所感染的呼吸系统疾病，即感冒，其道理也许就如同“禽流感”的专业术语是avian flu而通俗说法为bird flu一样，前者显得更正式，而后者体现了大众化特点。
事实上，与动物相关的流感，一般来说就是用动物的名称加上flu，如dog flu，horse flu等等，而人类流感则叫做human flu，仅有的差别只是流感病毒的宿主(host)不同而已，如Wikipedia对bird flu的释义：“Bird flu”is a phrase similar to“Swine flu”，“Dog flu”，“Horse flu”， or“Human flu”in that it refers to an illness caused by any of many different strains of influenza viruses that have adapted to a specific host。
在此次“猪流感”疫情中，除了学习到了swine flu这一表达之外，我们还可以学习到其他一些相关词汇，
如flu vaccine(流感疫苗)，flu caseload(感染病例数)，shot(注射，打针，eg. The nurse gave me a flu shot。护士给我打了治疗流感的针)，flu strain(流感病毒株)，anti-viral medications(抗病毒药物)，make a vaccine against(研制出一种抗……的疫苗)，ease flu symptoms(减轻流感症状)等等。在最近有关“甲型H1N1流感”的新闻报道中，出现频率较高的相关词汇还有contagious(会传染的)，respiratory disease(呼吸道疾病)，circulate(传播)，contaminate(传染)，infect(感染)，contract(感染)，epidemic(流行病，时疫)，epidemiologists(流行病学专家)，pandemic(尤指全国性流行的疾病)，pneumonias(肺炎)，case(病例)，confirmed case(确诊病例)，suspected case(疑似病例)，incubation period(潜伏期)，outbreak(爆发)，mutate into a more dangerous strain(突变成更危险病毒株)，human-to-human transmission/spread/infection(人与人之间的传播/感染)，cough(咳嗽)，sneeze(打喷嚏)，antiviral drug(抗病毒药物)，symptom(症候)，face mask(面罩)，test positive/negative(检测呈阳性/阴性)，develop a fever(出现发烧/发热症状)，precautionary measures(预防措施)，avoid contacts with(避免与……接触)，quarantee(医学隔离)，isolate(隔离，通俗用词)，step up surveillance(加强检测)，flu jitters(流感恐慌)，contain(遏制)，stem the spread of the virus(制止病毒的扩散)，public health emergency of international concern(国际关注的突发公共卫生事件)等等。以下是与上述部分词语相关的一些例句：
1. Canadaon Wednesday confirmed its first human-to-human spread of A/H1N1 flu infection, as the country' s total cases rise to 19。
2. Researchers have confirmed two cases of human to human transmission of the A/H1N1 influenza virus, raising the possibility that the infection could soon gain a foothold among people, with the potential to strike millions。
3. Scientists at the National Microbiology Laboratory have found that the virus appears to have an incubation period of two to seven days。
4. The Canadian public remains calm and the government has urged necessary precautionary measures such as washing hands frequently and avoiding contacts with people havingflu symptoms。
5. All new cases are mild, but one of the patients in British Columbia has not been to Mexico recently and is believed to contract the virus from another person。
6. The above comments leave little doubt that the H1N1 flu is being efficiently transmitted human to human in southern California。
7. Hong Kong quarantined hundreds of hotel guests and workers Friday after a tourist from Mexico tested positive for A/H1N1 flu,Asia's first confirmed case of the disease。
8. China will track down the other passengers on the flight from Mexico to Shanghai and quarantine them for seven days, the country's Ministry of Health said in a statement Friday。
9. Governments worldwide raced to contain the spread of a new strain of A/H1N1 flu that has killed over 80 people in Mexico,amid a fresh warning that the virus could mutate into a more dangerous strain。