Jama: Gaps in the Clinical Management of Influenza - A Century Since the 1918 Pandemic

[tetano]

This year marks the centennial of the devastating 1918 influenza A(H1N1) pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. Prevention and control activities were limited in 1918 because global surveillance did not exist, influenza viruses were not yet discovered, and no influenza vaccines had been developed. Diagnostic tests for influenza were unavailable prior to isolation of influenza viruses in the 1930s, so spread of the pandemic virus was tracked by news reports of increased respiratory disease and related deaths. Establishment of the World Health Organization?s Global Influenza Surveillance Network in 1952 has contributed substantially to coordinated surveillance, vaccine development, and influenza vaccine strain selection.

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