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Preparing for Pandemic Influenza:
A personal and family guide

Print version of brochure in pdf
Single sheet version for print

Pandemic influenza -- What it is

Pandemic
A disease outbreak that spreads rapidly around the world.

Influenza
An infection of the lungs caused by a virus that can be passed from person to person.

Seasonal Influenza
A common form of influenza that spreads each winter. Flu shots protect many people from becoming infected.

Avian Influenza
Also called “bird flu.” A type of flu that affects poultry and wild birds. Humans can get this type of flu through close contact with infected birds. Avian influenza cannot be spread from person to person

An influenza pandemic is a worldwide outbreak of a new flu virus

An influenza—or flu—pandemic is an outbreak of a new type of flu virus that spreads rapidly from one country to another. The new virus affects only birds or animals at first, but gradually changes to affect people as well. A pandemic begins when the new flu virus is easily passed from person to person.

A flu pandemic will be more serious than the seasonal flu

Not as many people get sick from seasonal flu because people have developed some immunity to the virus and because so many protect themselves by getting flu shots. However, a pandemic would be caused by a new type of flu virus. People would have no immunity to it and no vaccine would exist to prevent it. It would take months to develop and produce a vaccine that works against a new pandemic flu virus. Because of this—and because people would have no immunity—a new flu virus would spread rapidly. Hundreds of thousands in our country could get sick, and many could die.

Flu pandemics happen

Flu viruses are everywhere and they change constantly. At some time in the future it is very likely that a flu virus will change in a way that causes a pandemic. Currently, health officials are concerned about the avian flu virus in Asia and Europe, because it could change and spread easily from person to person. No one knows when the next flu pandemic will happen; large pandemics occurred in 1918, 1957, and 1968. Far more people travel today than in the past, which makes it easier for diseases to spread quickly around the world. A flu outbreak in another country may be just an airplane ride away from the United States.
 

1918 Troops packed into ships returning from World War I carried a new flu virus home with them. It spread rapidly, killing 500,000 people in the United States and 40 million worldwide.

Now Hundreds of thousands of people travel between countries each day—significantly more than even 30 years ago. A highly contagious flu virus could spread worldwide much faster than earlier pandemics.
 

Next page: What to expect
 

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