KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON - A local comics artist with a personal connection to the great influenza pandemic of 1918 has teamed up with public health officials on an vivid new comic book about pandemic flu. The comic book No Ordinary Flu reaches out to immigrants and young people with information about the pandemic threat, then and now. Starting today, Public Health – Seattle & King County is making No Ordinary Flu available to order for free through the Public Health website.
The comic book follows the fictional account of a young World War I veteran and his family as their world is transformed overnight by the arrival of the deadly flu virus. No Ordinary Flu also describes the current threat of a flu pandemic and includes information on how to prepare.
Artist David Lasky brings a personal connection to his work on the comic, as his great-grandmother died during the 1918 pandemic that killed over 675,000 Americans. Her grieving husband left three of his children to be raised in an orphanage, including Lasky’s grandmother.
“The 1918 pandemic left such a mark on my family, but until this project, I never really knew much about the pandemic itself,” commented Lasky. “I was completely surprised to learn how deadly it was, and how quickly it had spread.”
“A severe pandemic would affect the lives of everyone in our community, and this comic book helps people to visualize pandemic flu’s speed and impact, which can be difficult to grasp,” explained Dr. David Fleming, Director and Health Officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County. “Everyone needs to prepare for the health and economic impacts of a pandemic, so we’re delivering the message in a way that reaches diverse communities.”
The idea for No Ordinary Flu came from requests from local immigrant groups for emergency preparedness materials that use pictures to communicate. Public Health educators chose the comic book format because comics are widely read by people of all ages in parts of Latin America and Asia. The comic book has been translated into 11 languages to make it accessible to many of King County’s immigrant populations. All language versions are available from the Public Health – Seattle & King County website.
“My great-grandmother who died in the 1918 pandemic was an immigrant from Russia,” noted Lasky. “So knowing that this comic is available in multiple languages and could be helping to save lives in today's immigrant communities makes me very proud to have participated.”
A pandemic flu is a new influenza virus that could be a much more serious flu virus than seen in a typical flu season. Different from the typical, seasonal strains of flu, humans would have no or little natural resistance to a new strain of influenza.
Once a pandemic virus develops, it can spread rapidly with the ease of global travel, causing outbreaks around the world. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts that as much as 25% to 30% of the United States population could be affected. In King County alone, a severe pandemic flu could make 540,000 people ill, over 59,000 would need hospitalization, and 11,500 could die in the first six weeks of an outbreak.
Funding for the comic book was provided by the National Association of County and City Health Officers (NACCHO) Advanced Practice Center (APC) Program, a diverse network of local health departments actively working to help the public health community prepare for, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies and other disasters.
