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The Sudden Birth of 2009 A/H1N1, aka Swine Flu

Influenza viruses are transmitted more easily in cold dry air*. Even if the current outbreaks in the northern hemisphere quiet down in the next weeks and months, some experts are concerned that the virus will produce epidemics in the southern hemisphere during winter (June through August), and then return with a vengeance to the northern hemisphere in its fall and winter seasons.

That’s exactly what happened in the pandemic of 1918-1919. However, that pattern doesn’t always happen: The swine flu outbreak that occurred at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in early 1976 did not return the next winter.
However, in anticipation that it would, 40 million people were immunized, and about 1 in 100,000 vaccinated people developed Guillain-Barré syndrome.

[* Didn't this one come from Mexico?]