United Airlines acted correctly in removing an ill patient from the airplane ("Swine flu challenges airlines," front page, Nov. 10). Tuberculosis, measles and influenza are among many serious diseases that have spread in an airplane cabin. ...more

November 13, 2009

The virus that caused the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 was so powerful it killed an estimated 50 million people. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that it produced some powerful antibodies against it. ...more

September 3, 2008

Most deaths in the 1918 influenza pandemic were caused not by the virus alone but by common bacterial infections that overwhelmed victims' weakened immune systems, according to two new studies that could change the strategy for the next pandemic. ...more

August 18, 2008