WHO: International threat of global flu pandemic - timeline
Searching more than 75 years of world history
- August 2007. The World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that, because of unprecedented human mobility, infectious diseases are spreading faster than ever and that without increased international co-operation, there is a high risk of a global pandemic with devastating social and economic effects.
- June 2007. The WHO's revised International Health Regulations (IHR) come into force, establishing an agreed framework of commitments and responsibilities for member states.
- May 2007. An international team of scientists announce that antibodies from Vietnamese survivors of infection by the H5N1 avian influenza ("bird flu") virus, provided a high degree of immunity to mice infected with the Vietnamese strain of H5N1.
- January 2007. Indonesian Minister of State for National Development Planning Paskah Suzetta says that Indonesia might declare its continuing outbreaks of avian influenza ("bird flu") a national disaster in order to release special budget funding to implement a strategy to contain the disease.
- November 2006. Margaret Chan of China, the WHO's assistant director general for communicable diseases, is elected as the UN body's new director general.
- September 2006. The BBC reports that research to be published in the October issue of the journal Nature Medicine uncovers a possible explanation of the high number of fatalities amongst people infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
- July 2006. A UK pharmaceuticals company announces the results of trials of a vaccine for humans against the avian influenza ("bird flu") virus H5N1.
- February 2006. In a report published in the The Independent, WHO director in Vietnam, Hans Troedsson, says that although Vietnam is so far the country worst hit by the H5N1 avian influenza virus (bird flu), it is also the first to contain it successfully.
- February 2006. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) presents a study listing more than 1,400 microbial agents of disease in humans.
- January 2006. Turkey reports its first human cases of the potentially fatal H5N1 strain of avian influenza ("bird flu").
- December 2005. The government in China confirms the country's fifth and sixth cases of avian influenza (bird flu) in humans.
- October 2005. Romania reports the first cases of avian influenza (bird flu) in Europe, raising fears that the deadly virus is spreading rapidly along bird migratory routes from Asia.
- May 2005. The WHO adopts a new set of regulations governing the response of governments and international organisations to outbreaks of communicable diseases, replacing the 1969 International Health Regulations that covered only cholera, plague, yellow fever, smallpox, relapsing fever, and typhus.
- December 2004. Health Ministry officials in Japan confirm the country's first human case of avian influenza.
- October 2004. The EU introduces measures designed to combat bird flu.
- September 2004. Ministry of Health officials in Indonesia announce that a 27-year-old woman and a five-year-old girl have died from avian influenza (bird flu), bringing the total number of recorded deaths so far in Indonesia from the H5N1 virus to six.
- April 2004. The first reported death from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) since the 2003 outbreak occurred on April 19, with three further cases of the disease confirmed during the month.
- February 2004. The WHO says that two Vietnamese women who had died from bird flu might have contracted the virus from their brother, possibly the first case of human-to-human infection.
- January 2004. Ministers of 10 Asian countries convene in Bangkok (the capital of Thailand) for a conference on an outbreak of avian influenza that so far has killed at least 10 people.
- January 2004. Three new suspected cases of SARS are confirmed in China's southern province of Guangdong.
- May 2003. In Hong Kong the government announces a package of public health measures as a way of combating the continuing problem of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and guarding against further outbreaks.
- March 2003. The outbreak of an unknown form of severe influenza or pneumonia, classified by the WHO as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), creates a public health crisis in Hong Kong.
- November 1999. UK scientists announce the discovery of specimens of the influenza virus (the so-called "Spanish flu") which had killed up to 40 million people in an epidemic which began in 1918.
- April 1999. Two children in Hong Kong are diagnosed as suffering from a new strain of bird-carried influenza, classified as H9N2.
- December 1997. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) authorities announce their intention to slaughter 1.25 million chickens to help contain the spread of a deadly "bird flu" virus which has raised fears of a global pandemic.
- January 1960. The World Health Organisation announces that malaria has been completely eradicated in 11 countries and territories and that many others "have almost achieved that goal or are well on the way towards it".
- September 1957. The US-based Winston Price announces that he has developed a successful vaccine against a major common cold virus.
- June 1948. The first Assembly of the World Health Organisation (WHO) convenes in Geneva.
- December 1947. The US Public Health Service announces that US doctors have isolated one kind of virus which causes the common cold.
- March 1937. A report on influenza by the Medical Research Council is published in the UK.
- July 1936. Doctors at Harvard University announces the discovery of a method to kill the influenza virus with ultra violet rays.
- March 1934. A report by the National Institute for Medical Research on "the influenza problem" is published in the UK.
- July 1933. A report by the National Institute for Medical Research on various forms of influenza, including swine flu, is published in the UK.
