Pandemic and seasonal flu: what you need to know.

What is pandemic flu? Sometimes new strains of flu may appear that people have little or no immunity to. When this happens, the virus can spread easily between people and cause an outbreak on a global scale — a pandemic. For example, the 2009 H1N1 swine flu was considered a pandemic flu. Although flu pandemics are rare, they can have severe consequences, including high rates of worker absenteeism, a crowded health care system, and disease and death among residents. For more information about pandemic flu, visit http://1.usa.gov/18PKWGs.