Pandemic: The World Health Organization says coronavirus is a ‘never before seen’ outbreak
CNNCNN Films’ documentary “Unseen Enemy: Pandemic” airs Sunday at 12 am ET. CNN — The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. The most severe pandemic in recent history was the 1918 influenza pandemic, sometimes referred to as the “Spanish flu.” The pandemic was estimated to have infected about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population and killed some 50 million worldwide. Then in 1957, a novel influenza A H2N2 virus emerged in East Asia, triggering a pandemic that is estimated to have killed 1.1 million worldwide and 116,000 in the United States. The World Health Organization declared the global H1N1 pandemic over in August 2010, but the H1N1 virus continues to circulate as a seasonal flu virus every year.