Swine Flu: Omen of Things To Come

Flu has a history of foreshocks by Jill U. Adams , Los Angeles Times

In past decades, a smaller influenza wave has preceded pandemics, but experts say there is no way to predict if H1N1 is such a precursor.

H1N1 swine flu may be fading from the news some, but the number of confirmed cases nationwide has been higher than is usual for seasonal flu in the month of May. What does that mean? Is this flu's ability to linger into the spring suggestive of how different a beast it is? And what does it portend for how the virus might infect Americans over the summer and come fall?

...Scientists think the spring swine flu epidemic may be a "herald wave" of what's to come. In 1918, a milder wave of flu cases occurred in late winter and early spring, before the deadly pandemic surge in the fall of that year. In 1957, Asian flu was causing unremarkable illness in China, before landing on American soil for the summer outbreaks and a severe winter season.

See related pandemic articles here.