Pandemic Influenza Storybook

The Pandemic Influenza Storybook is produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, United States (US), as part of their Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) project conducted throughout the country for public health professionals involved with a variety of emergency response communications activities. The “Basic” CERC course debuted in 2002, and two additional modules have been added: “Leaders for Leaders” and “Pandemic Influenza”. This storybook is a resource tool for the latter module for certified CERC trainers and trainees. The online storybook contains narratives from survivors, families, and friends who lived through the 1918 and 1957 pandemics. Additionally, stories from the 1968 pandemic will be added to this resource as they become available. The Pandemic Influenza Storybook is not a closed book; CDC will continue to accept stories and add them to the book at quarterly intervals.

The storybook contains first-person and family accounts that are intended to provide an intimate, personal view of the 1918 and 1957 pandemics that goes beyond the staggering statistics associated with those events.

Sections include:

• Courage and Unbearable Loss - Pandemic flu stories of great courage amid unbearable loss.
• Where There’s a Will … - Many used whatever they had to stave off illness and death.
• Sickness Comes in Haste but goes in Leisure - The illness endured during a pandemic is remembered for many years afterwards.
• 1957 Pandemic Flu - The 1957 Influenza Pandemic caused at least 70,000 US deaths and 1-2 million deaths worldwide.
• Other Resources: Biographies of leaders during the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic.

Story submission forms are available in two downloadable formats: MS Word format and PDF format. They may be sent to the address in the contact information below.