Responding to Pandemic Influenza in Hawaii

Abstract

Pandemics have arisen throughout history, and despite numerous present-day advances, the response of humanity to medical disaster has changed little. Major influenza outbreaks have appeared three times in the past century, the most dangerous being the Spanish Influenza pandemic in 1918. Within two years over a billion people, approximately halfofthe world's population at the time had been infected, resulting in over forty million deaths. Less than a century later, Avian Influenza has reappeared in the global arena, and the global community must respond.