There may never be a good time for a flu pandemic, but now is a better moment for an outbreak to occur than at almost any point in the past.
After five years of political discussion, funding and preparations around the globe, the latest H1N1 virus will provide the first real test of systems and stockpiles put in place since the middle of the decade, co-ordinated by the World Health Organisation.
The momentum was spurred by the Sars outbreak in 2003 and intensified by a small but rising number of deaths since then from the bird flu-derived H5N1 flu virus, which has proved lethal but still “inefficient” in its transmission between humans. To date it has claimed at least 257 lives and infected another 421 people around the world.
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