[Danger is in the air: is the Spanish Flu back?]

When we were working on the present issue of our journal, where there are three special articles on the Spanish Flu, the epidemic that broke out in 1918 supposedly killing more people than the First World War, some news in the papers made our hair stand on end. "The world is heading to an influenza pan-epidemic", announced the World Health Organization last January 20 (O Globo, 2.01.2005, p.28). In the March 15 issue of the same newspaper, one reads: "Specialists warn the the effects of the pan-epidemic of fowl flu would be devastating". As we are privileged to have one of these specialists here in Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, we asked her to what extend these statements were true. So, we are now sharing with you readers the enlightening conversation we had with Marilda Mendonça Siqueira. She is a researcher of Fundação Oswaldo Cruz Virology Department, where she leads the Respiratory Viruses and Measles Lab, part of WHO's international net for influenza vigilance, which has existed since the 1950's.