We hear a lot about various viruses that threaten to ‘go out of control’ and spread across the globe, decimating human populations. Depending on the source of your information, you get different levels of accuracy and sensationalism about this possibility.

A pandemic is like an epidemic, but bigger. Epidemics happen within a single geographic area (often a city, sometimes larger areas like a province or a country, perhaps); pandemics are often global. Epidemics are defined by numbers of cases of a disease; for example, if the common winter flu we all have had exceeds expected or typical average numbers, a city’s department of health might declare an epidemic. Pandemics are simply epidemics that are happening in many different places at the same time, often aided by our modern lifestyle of quick, accessible air travel.

Historically, Canada has had its share of epidemics. The smallpox outbreaks that occurred among Aboriginal populations after European contact were due to the natives’ lack of immunity to a new virus they had never encountered. During the first world war, the Spanish Flu came to Canada as soldiers returned from fighting in Europe. The pandemic lasted between 1918 to 1920, affecting 50 million people world wide, and killing 50 000 Canadians. Canada was left relatively unaffected by the H1N1 virus, shown on this slider image. The World Health Organization declared that H1N1 (Swine flu) had reached pandemic proportions in 2009, and only subsided a year later.

Will there be a pandemic in your lifetime? Count on it. The New York Times ran an excellent article looking at this eventuality. Should we worry? Well, our governments’ ministries of health should be, and have been, taking part in active discussions and preparations with world health organizations; research is investigating possibilities of mutations in viruses; outbreaks of viral disease are monitored closely. As far as you & I are concerned, don’t lose sleep over it yet. Keep following the same procedures you would to avoid seasonal flus and colds, basically, and stay informed.