The SARS-CoV-2 transmission riddle - Part 15 - The Global Influenza Programme (GIP)

From public health intervention to trough

One of the essential components of creating the influenza market was the consequences of setting up the Global Influenza Programme in 1947 (yes, you have to go back to understand). 

The Story of Influenza Antivirals: Part 15

Here’s how Sir Christopher Andrewes, one of the three scientists who first isolated the human influenza virus in 1933, described what happened:

The truth of this first became apparent in 1945 when an unusual activity of Influenza B in several countries around the Pacific was followed by similar happenings in America and then in Europe. As a result of this I was instrumental in getting interested people to discuss the whole question during an International Congress in Copenhagen in 1947; the meeting had the blessing of the World Health Organization (WHO). This led to the setting up of a network of WHO influenza laboratories around the world, with headquarters at a World Influenza Centre at the National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill and another co-ordinating laboratory in the United States. The o…