Is Swine Flu More Contagious Than Regular Influenza?

September 1, 2009 -- Question: Is swine flu more contagious than regular influenza?

Answer: It does appear that swine flu is more, as we would say, contagious than regular influenza probably for a few reasons. One, is that our population has no immunity to it no one has seen this virus before in past years either by infection or by a flu shot. Because of that we don't have any immunity and that means we're much more susceptible to getting the infection if we're exposed. Also there seems to be some aspects of this virus that are different than the usual seasonal flu that does make it more transmittable from person to person, particularly amongst children and young people.