Dimensions
145 x 224 x 30mm
In 1997 a young boy's death in Hong Kong sent shock waves around a little-known world-wide scientific network. The boy was killed by an unfamiliar strain of flu. In 1918, the Spanish Flu killed up to forty million people across the planet. It killed more Americans than all the wars that country has fought this century put together. It remains a mystery why the 1918 outbreak was so devastating. In August 1998 scientists exhumed the bodies of seven sailors buried for eighty years within the Norwegian Arctic Circle, in order to search for clues. There's a chance that their frozen graves will tell us why the Spanish strain proved so catastrophic. Competition among rival scientists is intense: the prize is information that could hold the key to our future safety. Catching Cold is the extraordinary story of 1918's forgotten tragedy and of the global scientific community working to avert another such disaster. As far as the next pandemic is concerned, all the scientists agree: it's not a question of if, but when.
