Global Flu and You

Chills, fever, weakness and fatigue are classic symptoms of what is commonly termed the flu. While the symptoms themselves seem harmlessly close to the common cold, influenza can fatally spread around the world in seasonal epidemics, resulting in the deaths of between 250,000 and 500,000 people every year, devastating millions in pandemics. Recent years have seen an increased interest in and concern with pandemic influenza. The recurrance of the Spanish Flu virus, the appearance and sporadic spread of Bird Flu and the unexpected Swine Flu have heightened attention to the dangers it poses. What has generally been overlooked in current panics over potential epidemics is that influenza pandemics are not a new phenomenon: rather, humans have a long history with the influenza virus. In Global Flu and You, George Dehner traces the origins of the disease and outlines the social and cultural changes that have enabled it to become an endemic threat to human health. In recent generations medical and scientific breakthroughs in studying and protecting against the virus have made rapid progress, providing governments with effective tools to safeguard public health. But social, demographic, economic and technological changes have also served to speed up and amplify the potential impacts of an influenza pandemic, potentially undermining the promise of these new protective strategies. Written for both the general and specialist reader, Global Flu and You draws upon the author's long and intensive research on influenza pandemics.