Planning for an Influenza Pandemic: Thinking beyond the Virus

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Abstract
R. Théophile H. Laennec was the first to describe the pathology of pandemic influenza. The inventor of the stethoscope and of the technique of auscultation, Laennec published in the early 19th century a series of observations on diseases of the chest which remain relevant reading today. Among his many contributions to science was his recognition while practicing in Paris during the 1803 pandemic that pneumonia was a frequent, fatal complication of influenza [1]. He described an increase in expectoration of yellow to greenish-tinged sputum, an increased frequency of “double” pneumonia, and noted that in most fatal cases, the lungs were at the early pneumonic stage of “engorgement” when examined by autopsy.