# 2010
With summer approaching here in the northern hemisphere, many people mistakenly believe that the threat of a pandemic has ended until at least next winter.
While here in the States we tend to worry most during the Fall and Winter months, the truth is, it is just about always flu season somewhere on the earth.
Right now it is the Southern Hemisphere's turn, and a pandemic strain could emerge in South Africa, South America, Australia, or New Zealand.
And of course, there really isn't a flu `season' in the equatorial regions of the globe; influenza occurs year round.
According to the CDC, in the last century all three of the pandemics we experienced began to show up in the United States during the summer months.
While there was a mild strain of flu reported in the Spring of 1918, it wasn't until July that public Health officials began warning of the deadly `Spanish Influenza' sweeping the world.
By late August, the virus had achieved a terrible foothold and was spreading rapidly. September and October, neither traditionally thought of as `flu season' in the State's saw the worst affects of the pandemic.
In 1957, sporadic cases of the Asian Flu started showing up during the summer months, but did not take off until children returned to school in the Fall. While less severe than 1918, the Asian flu reportedly killed 4 million people worldwide.
And in 1968, the Hong Kong flu arrived in the United States in September, but did not become widespread until December.
Far milder than either the 1918 or the 1957 pandemics, the Hong Kong flu still claimed more than a million lives.
In the past pandemics have often begun in remote regions of the world and taken months to spread to our shores. Today, with a highly mobile society, a pandemic is likely to spread far quicker. Instead of taking months, the next pandemic could spread globally in a matter of weeks.
While we all tend to relax a little during the summer months, and avian influenza news seems to decline, history shows that the summer is not exempt from pandemics.
Pandemic surveillance, preparation, and education must continue year round.
We don't have the luxury of putting it on the back burner until fall.
