Viral Surveillance and the 1968 Hong Kong Flu Pandemic

Abstract

This paper traces the diffusion of the 1968 Hong Kong Influenza Pandemic against the backdrop of scientific and global health developments, a global wave of social protests, and Cold War tensions between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Although far less severe than the 1918-19 ‘Spanish’ Influenza Pandemic, the ease with which influenza spread globally between 1968 and 1970 contributed to the reformulation of global health that emphasized the need for enhanced preparedness and rapid vaccine production. From the 1950s through the 1960s, the scope of disease surveillance had been expanded, with China increasingly identified as the global epicenter of viral threats. In so arguing, the paper challenges histories of global health that suggest the 1960s and early 1970s was a period when concerns for infectious disease receded, in contrast to the final two decades of the twentieth century that saw the ascendancy of an “emerging diseases worldview.