ON SEPTEMBER 1, 1957, a New York newspaper carried a roundup story on Asian influenza with this lead sentence: "The greatest teamwork in medical history has been stimulated by the threat of a spread of Asian influenza this fall." Later in the story the reporter wrote: "Communications from Geneva [World Health Organization] through the world's capitals to laboratories, health departinents, universities, vaccine manufacturers, local physicians, and the general public is the key to today's medical teamwork." Undoubtedly the Nation's readiness with respect to Asian influenza owed its heaviest debt to intercommunication among nations, among medical and scientific and public health professions, between industry and government, and between all of these elements and the populace. The interchange of information has been constant since June 10, 1957, when Surgeon General Leroy E. Burney called the first meeting of representatives of medical and health professions to discuss the influenza epidemics then appearing throughout the Far East and to consider courses of action should the disease spread to this country. In this effort the role of public information and health education as an organized and integrated part of the Public Health Service's Asian influenza program has been fully recogiized and fully employed. In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee on behalf of a request for supplemental funds for influenza activities, the Surgeon General said: