“For the first time in human history, we have a chance to prepare ourselves for a pandemic before it arrives …. It is incumbent upon the global community to act now.” Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General, WHO
In the last century we had three flu pandemics: Spanish flu in 1918, Asian flu in 1957, and Hong Kong flu in 1968. In the United States, the Spanish flu killed more people than all the combat deaths of the 20th century, with more than 500,000 deaths in the United States and 20–40 million worldwide.
