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Daniel Tarantola, MD

International Associate Editor, AJPH

	Because this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

The current emergence and spread of H1N1 flu in North America and beyond reminds me of a book I devoured many years ago. In his 1940 novel, The Tartar Steppe (Boston, MA: D. R. Godine, 2005), Dino Buzzati recounted the story of Giovanni Drogo, a young lieutenant assigned to a remote frontier citadel to guard against the illusionary invaders, the Tartars. Drogo's life-long and monotonous vigil became the central purpose of his life. But the Tartars never came. As a general about to retire, a disgraced and disgruntled Giovanni Drogo was on the road back to the civilian life he . . . [Full Text]