Article due in September 2007 issue

H5N1 Influenza pandemic planning - should medical students be left out?

The last century has seen three flu pandemics: the Spanish flu (A/H1N1) in 1918, the Asian flu (A/H2N2) in 1957 and the Hong Kong flu (A/H3N2) in 1968. When a pandemic occurs, the numbers of casualties are usually high. During the Spanish flu between 20 million and 40 million people died, with 200 000 just in the UK. The Asian and Hong Kong flu combined claimed approximately 1 4 million lives.¹

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