By Tom Schroeder
In 1918, an influenza pandemic swept the globe, killing more than 50 million people. At least 20% of the world’s population was infected, and entire villages in Alaska and Africa were wiped out. Without our modern understanding of viruses or experience with anything of this scale, the US Public Health Service could do little to prevent spread or treat those affected, leading to more than 600,000 American deaths.
Fortunately, since 1918, the world has learned much about the nature of disease and how it spreads. We’ve developed a system for analyzing and responding to threats that far surpasses any sort of coordination we may have had 90 years ago, both nationally and globally. Two groups, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), work together to ensure that the public is kept safe and informed. The latest threat they have to face is the H1N1 influenza virus, also known as the swine flu. H1N1 was recently declared a pandemic by the WHO, meaning that there have been large outbreaks in multiple regions of the globe.
