Influenza: Its Control in Persons and Populations

Abstract

This case description is from what surely was an influenza epidemic in the year 1557 and is similar to influenzal illnesses seen currently. The pattern of occurrence of influenza is for millions of such cases to occur in epidemics. Hippocrates referred to an epidemic in the year 412 B.C., and history has recorded many influenza epidemics and pandemics since that time. In 1974, an Influenza Research Center (IRC) was established at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston). It has been devoted primarily to obtaining answers to many of the epidemiological questions relat-