What would we have done if swine flu hit during a regional?

[AlexD744]

Originally Posted by Richard

N1H1 influenza? I recall reading a fascinating book about the pandemic of 1918, in which many millions of people were killed by a flu strain of that name. The book is really about heroes of science. I highly recommend it.

That'll calm people down. Good thing it's actually H1N1.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

That'll calm people down. Good thing it's actually H1N1.

Sorry, my mistake -- just repeating the transposition that an earlier poster made. See the nicely detailed explanation by Vikesrock a few posts further down. The virus that caused the 1918 flu pandemic described in the book I cited was H1N1. However,

Viruses with the H1N1 subtype, including descendants of the 1918 Spanish Flu, cause about half of all influenza infections so the connection between the subtypes of the two flus is fairly inconsequential.