Pandemics "always part of human history"
Emergency hospital during Spanish Influenza pandemic 1918, Camp Funston, Kansas
JB: This is Earth & Sky – on what public health experts believe is a major threat to people around the globe – a global outbreak of influenza – a “pandemic.”
DB: To reach pandemic status, a disease needs three things. It has to be new to people’s immune systems. It has to actually make people sick. And lastly it has to be easily transmitted from person to person. Avian flu or “bird flu” already meets the first two requirements …
Lynnette Brammer: We’ve got the new virus and it does cause disease in humans, but we don’t have sustained person–to–person transmission.
JB: That’s Lynnette Brammer – an epidemiologist at the Influenza Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. She said the avian flu virus isn’t likely to cause a pandemic in its current form. But it could – if its genes mix with those of other viruses – so that bird flu becomes more easily transmitted from one person to another.
DB: Whether it’s bird flu or another strain of flu, experts agree that pandemics have always been a part of human history. The last one was in 1918. Many countries are now stockpiling anti–viral drugs to prepare for the next pandemic. And the World Health Organization operates a global network of disease experts constantly on the lookout for new strains of flu.
JB: If a pandemic begins, experts are hopeful this network will save lives. With thanks to the National Science Foundation, we’re Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.
CORRECTION: The flu pandemic of 1918 was the deadliest of the past century, but it wasn’t the latest. Flu pandemics also occured in 1957 and 1968. We regret any confusion.
Visit Pandemicflu.gov, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The World Health Organization has information on Pandemic Preparedness.
The National Vaccine Program Office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has online resources about Pandemic Influenza.
Read an August 2004 draft of the U.S. Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Plan, prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services.
In 1997, a boy in Hong Kong caught influenza – and died. As it turned out, this was no ordinary flu – but one that had jumped from birds to humans. This flu virus has since killed dozens of people and hundreds of millions of animals, including birds, pigs, cats and tigers. Health experts are worried about this particular bird flu virus – Influenza A–H5N1 – because it so easily crosses from one animal species to another. If it mutates in such a way that it can be more easily transmitted from person to person, then it will be difficult to stop it from becoming a pandemic.
Thanks to:
Lynnette Brammer
Epidemiologist
Influenza Branch
U.S. Centers for Disease Control
Atlanta, GA
Bruce Gellin
Director
National Vaccine Program Office,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
