We all know the signs: chills, fever, sore throat, muscle aches, coughing. But while the flu may seem harmlessly similar to the common cold, influenza results in between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths every year in epidemics that can spread rapidly around the world. In pandemic years, the disease can kill millions.

The recurrence of the Spanish flu virus, the appearance and spread of Bird flu and the unexpected Swine flu pandemic of 2009 have increased interest in and heightened concern about the dangers posed by flu. Drawing on his extensive research into influenza, George Dehner makes clear that such epidemics are not a new phenomenon: humans share a long, complex history with the influenza virus. This comprehensive book traces the animal origins of the disease and outlines the social and cultural changes that have enabled it, over thousands of years, to mutate and evolve to become the endemic threat to human health it is today.

In recent generations medical and scientific breakthroughs in studying and protecting against the virus have made rapid progress, providing governments with effective tools to safeguard public health. But modern social, demographic, economic and technological changes may also accelerate and amplify the impact of an influenza pandemic, potentially undermining the promise of these new protective strategies.

Exposing the facts and fictions surrounding this illness, Global Flu and You is a detailed but accessible read that will appeal to both the general and specialist reader.