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CDC - Speakers Bureau - Handwash Demonstrations, Career Days, and Health Fairs

CDC Telebriefing on H7N9 Influenza Cases

1957 Flu Pandemic, The 1957 flu pandemic was deadly, but milder than the 1918 event. The virus caused an estimated 70,000 deaths in the United States. The seven stories presented in this section are retold by survivors from New York to California.

I Survived, The staggering statistics associated with pandemics sometimes makes it difficult to remember that each number represents a single, human life. In this section, survivors share their intimate recollections of either their own illness or that of a loved one. All these storytellers are 90-plus years of age and they have carried with them for a lifetime their memories of the 1918 flu pandemic.

In Memorial, To date, October 1918 remains the deadliest month in U.S. history when approximately 200,000 Americans died of the flu. Healthy, young adults (average age 35 years) began coughing in the morning and were dead by the evening. The family stories described in this section define true courage amid unbearable loss.

I Survived, The staggering statistics associated with pandemics sometimes makes it difficult to remember that each number represents a single, human life. In this section, survivors share their intimate recollections of either their own illness or that of a loved one. All these storytellers are 90-plus years of age and they have carried with them for a lifetime their memories of the 1918 flu pandemic.

Plantings, That's the way one storyteller described his job of burying those who had died from the flu. There was a shortage of coffins and the dead had to be put in the ground as soon as possible to prevent the spread of infection. No eulogies. No choirs singing. No services. The lack of ceremony for the dead in 1918 left a lasting impression on the survivors for years to come.

I Survived, The staggering statistics associated with pandemics sometimes makes it difficult to remember that each number represents a single, human life. In this section, survivors share their intimate recollections of either their own illness or that of a loved one. All these storytellers are 90-plus years of age and they have carried with them for a lifetime their memories of the 1918 flu pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Pandemic Flu Storybook provides readers with an intimate look at the impact pandemic flu events have had on both survivors and the families and friends of non-survivors. The stories within the pages of this book are not folklore, but personal recollections from the 1918 and 1957 events. This collection of stories was first released online in 2008 to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the 1918 flu pandemic. The 1918 flu pandemic occurred towards the end of World War I. Despite the intensity of that global conflict, more people died during the flu pandemic than were killed during the entire war. The death toll from the flu was an estimated 50–100 million worldwide; in the United States, about 675,000 died. The 1957 flu pandemic killed 1–2 million worldwide and caused approximately 70,000 deaths in the United States.

Plantings, That's the way one storyteller described his job of burying those who had died from the flu. There was a shortage of coffins and the dead had to be put in the ground as soon as possible to prevent the spread of infection. No eulogies. No choirs singing. No services. The lack of ceremony for the dead in 1918 left a lasting impression on the survivors for years to come.