The pandemic threat The majority of people know that diseases are all around us, some of them particularly dangerous. Nevertheless, in contrast to the general safety on the rich countries, poor nations are especially affected by all kinds of diseases. So are we safe from pandemic? Personally, I think we are not ready to face one. I cannot deny that today's society is different from the 14th century Europe that faced bubonic plague. We have invented vaccines, antibiotics and we are much more concerned with hygiene than before. However, in the 1918, the Spanish flu, a variety of the avian flu, killed 50 to 100 million people in a year. Thanks to the war situation and the infected soldiers that returned home, the spanish flu could easily infect 500 million people around the world. Nowadays, with a population of 7 billion people and airplane trips whose maximum duration is 9-10h, within days a flu-like virus could conquer the world. In conclusion, I seriously believe that we should be more concerned about diseases around the world and be prepared for a possible pandemic. How could we determine if the next strain of flu season will be a minor illness or the cause of human extinction?