Title: Pandemic Flu History - A Deadly Legacy Word Count: 557 Summary: A pandemic event is the widespread incidence of a disease that is present through an entire region, continent, or even worldwide. A pandemic flu happens when a new variety of virus invades a community that does not have any resistance to that particular flu strain. Four major pandemics have swept around the globe since 1890. The first recorded pandemic flu history happened 1890 and was most intense in the United States and Western Europe. The Spanish Flu circled the w... Keywords: pandemic,influenza,bird flu,avian flu Article Body: A pandemic event is the widespread incidence of a disease that is present through an entire region, continent, or even worldwide. A pandemic flu happens when a new variety of virus invades a community that does not have any resistance to that particular flu strain. Four major pandemics have swept around the globe since 1890. The first recorded pandemic flu history happened 1890 and was most intense in the United States and Western Europe. The Spanish Flu circled the world just 28 years later, and was also known as the 1918 flu pandemic. The Spanish flu killed more than 40 million people and as much as one-third of the world's population was infected with this deadly virus, identified as H1N1. Over 100,000 people died in 1957 from the Asian flu pandemic, and the strain was known as the H2N2 virus. In 1968, the H3N2 virus was at the root of the Hong Kong pandemic flu. More than 700,000 perished from that deadly influenza. It is believed that both these last two strains of the virus, H2N2 and H3N2, evolved through an exchange of mutating genes found in human flu viruses and in avian flu viruses, most likely following an occurrence of both infections being present in a human host at the same time. For almost 30 years, the danger and fears of a pandemic influenza presentation that would again sweep around the globe seemed to all but disappear. However, the discovery in 1997 of a bird flu virus, H5N1, in a human patient in Hong Kong revived concerns over the possibility of a new flu pandemic that could spread more quickly than ever seen before because of advancements in international air travel. Debate and concern has been sparked throughout the international community regarding what types of considerations should be given on topics such as hospital pandemic flu plans, airport flu pandemic preparations, student, teacher and school pandemic flu plans and personal pandemic preparations. Fortunately, during the last decade of discussion and speculation about an avian flu pandemic, an influenza epidemic has not materialized, and for one primary reason. The deadly H5N1 virus, which has wiped out hundreds of millions of poultry stock, is not easily transferred from poultry to humans, and does not seem to be able to move from one human to another at all. However, when the bird flu has been contracted by humans, in more than 50% of the cases it has resulted in death. This is an alarming fatality rate for an influenza in humans. Because flu viruses are given to constant mutation, there still does exist the possibility that one version of these mutations could at some point be highly contagious between humans. Should that happen, the stage will indeed be set for a fast moving bird flu pandemic that is also likely to cause a record number of deaths based on previous pandemic flu history combined with the rapid spread made possible by modern international travel. Because the terms bird flu, avian flu, Asian bird flu and bird flu pandemic have now been in the news for 10 years, some experts are concerned about complacency on the part of individuals, communities and organizations that is leading to a lack of bird flu preparation possible for an outbreak in the future. While it seems the risk of a influenza pandemic is remote, preventative measures should be sought out.