They are Mother Nature's stealthiest killers: new strains of viruses and bacteria threaten to cause widespread death on a global scale. With an ever more mobile world population, potentially growing in size to 11 billion people by the next century, public health experts agree that the possibility of a cataclysmic disease spreading to all parts of the globe is more likely now than ever before. So what can we do to prepare for this inevitable disaster, and what can learn from the devastating pandemics of the past?

They are Mother Nature's stealthiest killers: new strains of viruses and bacteria threaten to cause widespread death on a global scale. With an ever more mobile world population, potentially growing in size to 11 billion people by the next century, public health experts agree that the possibility of a cataclysmic disease spreading to all parts of the globe is more likely now than ever before. So what can we do to prepare for this inevitable disaster, and what can learn from the devastating pandemics of the past?