Snacken R
Institut d'Hygiène et d'Epidémiologie, Bruxelles.
Rev Med Brux. 1996 Dec;17(6):400-2.
An influenza pandemic is caused by the emergence or the reoccurrence as well as the explosive spreading of a new influenza A virus in an immunologically unprotected population. During this century, three severe pandemics occurred: the Spanish Flu in 1918, the Asian Flu in 1957 and the Hong Kong Flu in 1968. The first one was responsible for 20 millions deaths. A future pandemic is very likely to occur but we cannot predict when it will happen. The mechanism of emergence of a new virus is totally different of the one observed during the annual interpandemic outbreaks. Since the severity of a pandemic virus is unpredictable, action plans must be designed to avoid over-reaction to harmless influenza viruses and at the same time to be adequate in dealing with a threatened new pandemic. Thus these two situations need different control and prevention plans.
流感大流行是由一种新的甲型流感病毒在免疫未受保护的人群中出现、再次出现以及爆发性传播引起的。在本世纪，发生了三次严重的大流行：1918年的西班牙流感、1957年的亚洲流感和1968年的香港流感。第一次造成了2000万人死亡。未来很可能会发生大流行，但我们无法预测它何时会发生。新病毒出现的机制与每年大流行间期爆发时观察到的机制完全不同。由于大流行病毒的严重程度无法预测，必须制定行动计划，以避免对无害的流感病毒过度反应，同时要足以应对新的潜在大流行。因此，这两种情况需要不同的控制和预防计划。
